Posted by Racer on July 25, 2004, at 12:44:57
In reply to Re: does EFFEXOR cause weight gain?, posted by King Vultan on July 25, 2004, at 10:04:32
Once again, I seem to be atypical on this, but then I've got weight problems to begin with, so my experience is probably not typical.
On the other hand, I was also taking Prozac with the Effexor XR, and Prozac has been shown to cause weight gain on its own, so it may be that the Effexor was just along for the ride. My weight gain, though, was certainly related to changes in my blood sugar regulation. While on the Effexor XR/Prozac combo, my blood sugar varied pretty widely, which certainly had an impact on my weight.
When I first started Effexor XR, I gained about 20 pounds in the first two months or so, but that leveled out at that level for about a year. After that, I started gaining steadily until I'd put on between 50 and 60 pounds altogether. (Not sure how much exactly: I stopped getting on the scale after a certain point, but had to buy new pants after that point.) The same pattern applied to my blood sugar, too: the wide variances didn't start for about a year, then became pretty pronounced. My guess is that monitoring blood sugar at the first sign of weight gain and addressing that directly would reduce or eliminate any weight gain.
When I stopped the Effexor, though, much of the weight came right off, without any changes on my part. That's the good news.
The other good news -- for everyone except me, at least -- is that I gained to almost the exact weight I'd been on Nortriptyline and on Paxil, so it seems to be a sort of set point for me when I'm medicated. (And I agree absolutely with Camille: there's not a lot of point to prescribing a drug that the patient will discontinue because of weight gain. Talk to your doctor about how any potential for weight gain can be minimized, and make sure that that issue is clearly understood on both sides. If you're seeing a female doctor, so much the better: I truly believe that male pdocs really don't have a clue about how basic an issue this is for women.)
Again, my weight is and always has been and probably always will be a problem -- regardless of medications. There was a pretty clear mechanism for my weight gain while I was on Effexor XR and Prozac. Most of the weight came right off when the meds were discontinued. And your mileage is very likely to vary from mine. Everything else I've read about Effexor says it's pretty well weight-neutral for virtually everyone. I'm just one of the lucky few, I guess.
Best luck!
poster:Racer
thread:370164
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040724/msgs/370312.html