Posted by bob on December 15, 2001, at 22:36:16
In reply to Re: STOP using antidepressants as an excuse !!!, posted by svevo1922 on December 15, 2001, at 21:53:12
> I think that most people can safely distinguish between weight gain caused by bad diet, no exercise, and an aging metabolism and that caused by an AD.
>
> I've taken a number of these drugs and I can tell you, only Remeron (mirtazapine) and Clomipramine (anafranil) caused me to gain a significant amount of weight and feel bloated. No other explanation was possible. I returned to my normal weight after stopping them, but then I refused to take them for more than a couple of months once I experienced their propensity to cause weight gain.
>
> I did not take MAOI's because, aside from the restrictive diet, they are known to cause weight gain in many people. And some drugs, in addition to slowing the metabolism, create cravings for more food or food like carbohydrates, which I assume is a separate effect from the metabolic one, but maybe not.
>
> I took Effexor, which didn't help very much. I think this was the drug that made me sweat profusely and I usually have to do a lot to break a sweat. It didn't cause me to gain weight. That doesn't mean it wouldn't make someone ELSE fat.
>
> Some people gain weight on fluoxetine (Prozac). When it came on the market, the media made a lot of the fact that many people lost weight on it. Gee, The American Dream: how I took the happy pill and lost 10 pounds of ugly fat without trying!
>
> I may be thinking of another drug, but with Effexor I was struck by the exceedingly bitter taste of the tablet.
>
> It really doesn't do to make depressed or anxious people further upset about things they don't have that much control over. This is a not a case of the person who eats a salad at work but finishes off an entire cheesecake in secret at home. Those people, many of whom are obese folks without mood disorders, are deceiving themselves. It's easy to overeat in America. But the difficulty of weight loss and the rising obesity rates are precisely why I try to avoid the AD's that cause weight gain or at least try to curb their effects by taking some other agent with them.**************************************************
So, svevo... if you're avoiding the ADs that cause weight gain, and/or augmenting them with an agent, what AD are you taking, and/or what are you augmenting it with?
poster:bob
thread:86818
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20011213/msgs/87064.html