Posted by aetherial on July 8, 2001, at 11:47:37
In reply to Weight gain and SSRIs, posted by Kathy99 on April 15, 2001, at 11:49:03
> I'm a bit confused by all the discussion of weight gain on SSRIs. It seems that many people attribute their weight gain to effects of the medication.
> snip
HI
This perfectly civil question produced the biggest surge of fustration!I'll tell you why.I have been on a calorie resticted lo fat eating regime: Strict then semi- veg etarian hi fibre, etc etc. (I was a healthy hippy type in the 70's and kept the habits). I exercise regularly and work at a job that caused me to lose weight when i started as I'm on my feet walking twenty hours a week. I am not a fitness fanatic but my BP is 126/80 and I'm 44.
For the last four or five I've been even more careful as I approached and hit the magic forty.Despite this, in the last two years I have put on 2-3 dress sizes and 4 stone (56 pounds or 20 kilos approx). The only thing I am doing differently is taking aropax (paroxetene/paxil)
Clearly eating more and doing less is NOT the only cause of weight gain. The resting rate of our unique metabolism is affected by all sorts of things, so why not by complex drugs like SSRI s.?If it were a simple equation then each person eating the same food and doing the same things would all add or lose weight at the same rate and that is clearly not the case.
The frustration I have experienced in trying to persuade well meaning people like yourself that I am NOT a closet eater. That I do NOT eat sweets or cakes, except at parties (ie once every 6-8 and I dont binge then!.)I don't drink alcohol. I don't pig out on cheese etc etc. Even my doctor could only mutter that the cause of my ballooning size seemed to be genetic.
I asked about the meds and each doctor i spoke to quoted the old drug company literature line that ssri's cause weight loss. Well they do. In the first weeks when you feel sick. 1-2 pounds in the first week.That seems to be it.
The problem is long term use of Paroxetene also causes severe weight gain. Check the amazing refs supplied in this thread. check the info on the packet (it used to say weight loss now mine at least says weight gain.) They don't know why it does this, but I am now noticing that the competing drug companies are promoting new anti depressants on the basis that they don't cause weight gain.
So I guess we're all just fat (and happy?) little guinea pigs.
But PLEASE, don't try to tell us that we need to eat less and do more, cause it just doesn't work!
regards
aether
poster:aetherial
thread:59947
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010708/msgs/69406.html