Weight Gain

Thank you for your question and welcome to AnxietyConnection.com.

Some people do gain weight when taking antidepressant medications. Judith Wurtman, on MyDepressionConnection, writes, "

Simple guidelines are all that are necessary to help the patient stop gaining and start losing weight. The patient should be told that even though the medication is increasing the activity of serotonin, it may at the same tim, be activating another chemical in the brain that increases appetite. Or the drug may be blocking another function of serotonin, namely its ability to shut off eating. The effect of this is to make the patient feel unsatisfied with the amount of food eaten at a meal or as a snack.  This urge to eat caused by the meds squashes will power and many extra calories are often consumed each day.

The remedy, as we write in The Serotonin Power Diet, is so simple.  Eat carbohydrates before meals and as scheduled snacks so the brain makes new serotonin. Let that serotonin turn off the appetite so that the patient does not have to rely on will power. Exercise, even gently, to increase muscle mass and use up extra calories.

Depression, pain from fibromyalgia, distress from anxiety disorder and other problems needing antidepressant medication are difficult enough to endure. No doctor should add significant weight gain to the problems the patient takes into the medical office."

I hope this helps

Eileen