To think if doctors are prescribing drugs known to have the side effect of weight gain they should also give out dietary advice with the prescription?

[LunchpackOfNotreDame]

I'm on a lot of medication which has weight gain as a known highly common side effect with it. It would be nice if I could be advised as to how to circumvent the weight gain and given appropriate advice and support with it.

Is that something that is possible or will I forever more be unable to get below a size 18

[hiddenhome2]

Most doctors don't even seem to acknowledge the problems caused by side effects. They also try to dismiss your findings and observations about the side effects and might as well just sit with their fingers in their ears singing "la, la, la"

[OnceAMeerNotAlwaysAMeer]

sorry to hear it exWife. The NHS is so shaky ...

If it's any help, an experienced person on the dieting forums here said that actually some of these meds change your hormonal balance so that weight loss is very, very, very difficult. Had this confirmed by someone else too. So at least it's nothing you've done, or not done; the Hunger is irresistible.

[exWifebeginsat40]

meer not really there is no money at all in my area so I'm left as I am. ah well.

[Marynary]

Yes, they certainly should be giving you advice on the side effects of the drug and how (if possible) to minimise the side effects.
I'm quite surprised some prescribers still don't do this nowadays. I have a chronic health condition and always receive a lot of information on drugs so that I can choose which drug I want. That should be what they do for every drug or health condition (assuming the patient is mentally competent).

[TrulySweet]

I was put on quetiapine (600mg) in January. I gained 8st (yes EIGHT stone!!) in about 4 months. I went from a size 12-16 (I was very pear shaped) to now being an apple (barrel) shaped 22-24.

Quetiapine has also caused me to be incontinent, i have the shakes, I get sunburn incredibly quickly (when no one else does), I'm sleepy all the time, blah blah. I filled in a yellow card online and it took ages to cover all the side effects.

Even better, it turns out that I should never have been put on it in the first place. It was prescribed against NICE guidelines & its not recommended for my conditions

I had a Wellbeing check up a few months ago and I had some kind of magic weighing scales tell me how much fat/muscle/bone I had. It also told me what my metabolism was like and it was so low it was at the bottom of the range. So basically quetiapine has changed my metabolic rate. That would explain why I just can't shift the weight no matter what I do.

I'm being weaned of it now so fingers crossed that when I'm off it my metabolic rate goes up and the weight comes off.

[OnceAMeerNotAlwaysAMeer]

oh exWife .... I suspect that will be affecting how the meds work, if you don't eat. If you can, please do tell the doctor. Do you have a sympathetic one?

[exWifebeginsat40]

i was put on Quetiapine during an inpatient stay. nobody gave me a leaflet to read and to be honest I would have tried anything at that point. I am also on meds to regulate my heartbeat - I take around 15 pills a day.

my weight gain is an issue because the one thing I never told any doctors about was my ten-year long bulimic history. I can't lose weight so I'm just not eating to see if that works.

[maggiethemagpie]

expatinscotland - if you're diabetic, ask them to put you on forxiga. It's a diabetic drug that causes weight loss, rather than gain. I lost 2 stone in a year on it.

[OnceAMeerNotAlwaysAMeer]

yes that was what annoyed me, not being told of the likely side effect of weight gain. I took the med for insomnia (offuse anti-depressant at low levels) and it worked well, enough that I could function .. .but it was really upsetting to suddenly balloon like that.


stopping them was a miracle cure though. Was not doing much exercise but the insatiable Hunger stopped and the weight dropped off so quickly. Suppose I was very lucky there.

[MrEverything]

Coffee High dose steroids are quite another matter. :( They are nasty little buggers that do cause weight gain and water rentention that is not purely due to over eating. Although, to add insult to injury, they make many people ravenous. They do the job very nicely though which makes it so hard to get off them, especially if other treatments don't work.

[Coffeethrowtrampbitch]

I feel for you op.

I've been on heavy steroids on and off since late 2012 and in that time I've put on a huge amount of weight. I currently weigh 18 stone, five of which I gained in 2014 alone after a brain biopsy and huge increase in meds.

My neurologist is currently trying to control my symptoms with immunosuppressants but I've just failed to respond to one and am being placed on another. While this is happening my drug dose is moving up and down which does affect my weight gain, and also makes me exhausted and depressed.

Last time I saw him, my neurologist apologised for my weight gain, but he explained it was unavoidable. I'll be on high dose steroids until I respond to something, then low dose forever.

I will have to wait until then to lose weight as just now I'm unlikely to be successful and need not to limit my intake of certain things, like calcium. I've tried to diet and failed at the moment, I can't stick to anything and I feel awful all the time.

But what he said to me may be good advice for you; prioritise. You can investigate other options and lose weight but only when your most serious health condition is being successfully managed. Being fat will kill you, but not straight away. Hopefully you will be able to tackle your weight once you have managed the symptoms of you illness and feel better.

[seasidesally]

yep Quetiapine (slow release) here to and big weight gain also terrible joint pain really effects my day to day living

[Manamanah]

"Drs should not be encouraging people to be fat anyway, and if they make them fat the prescriber should take responsibility. Lots of psychs routinely prescribe atypical antipsychotics, which cause metabolic syndrome, and how many roll up their sleeves to treat hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia?"
the difficulty with having a lot of contact with medical professionals and the interest in your own condition is that it becomes easy to start feeling like 'I know all this information, why doesn't my doctor?', while forgetting that every single medical condition can be understood in this much detail, but not by one individual. Medicine is enormous and complex and the more we understand the harder it becomes for anyone to be a 'generalist'. In much the same way that my obstetrician is managing my pregnancy, while an endocrinologist manages my diabetes, I'd far rather have a psychiatrist recognise the limit of their expertise, roll their sleeves back down and refer patients to someone whose job it is to understand the metabolic disorders associated with antipsychotics.

[thedevilinmyshoes]

I know it enhances neuronal growth cones, inhibits with phosphatidylinositol system, inhibits adenylate cylase, promotes hippocampal neurogenesis, enhances BDNF expression

and poss some effect on MARCKS (myristolated alanine-rich c-protein kinase)

[thedevilinmyshoes]

Thanks, am a fan of lithium and its modest magical properties.

[MrEverything]

thedevil I will find the info I have and send it to you via PM. Lithium is generally better monitored than other psychiatric drugs IME and works very well, so it does have to be weighed up.

[MrEverything]

dontrun Ah minimising, MN's favourite word. I never said 'eat less, move more'. Get that chip off your shoulder, eh?

[JJXM]

I was seven stone before I started on antipsychotics and within three years had doubled my weight. I also have a vomiting disorder as a result of somatization. I've lost three stone but I have to really watch what I eat. Weight gain is a recognised side effect of all antipsychotics - mine knock me out still within an hour after ten years and when I was on a high dose I was like a zombie sleeping 16 hours a day.

[thedevilinmyshoes]

Drs should not be encouraging people to be fat anyway, and if they make them fat the prescriber should take responsibility. Lots of psychs routinely prescribe atypical antipsychotics, which cause metabolic syndrome, and how many roll up their sleeves to treat hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia?

[thedevilinmyshoes]

I'm pretty sure I ate fairly normally when psych meds (mainly chlorpromazine and later olanzapine) from being underweight (not dangerously severe but bmi around just below 16) all the way up to a bmi of 27, the trouble with these meds is you're kind of too chilled out at higher doses to properly care.

Have maintained a much lower weight on lithium alone with lower doses of antipsychotics taken less regularly.

[PacificDogwod]

Lunchpack, I know

I sometimes gets… I dunno, tired at the expectation of being an expert in Everything and being available to Everybody at All Times Immediately for Everything that might be going wrong in people's lives. I do love my job though btw

Yes, many meds can contribute to weight gain. Or stop appetite dead - which can be just as difficult.

[Sallystyle]

Quetiapine is a bastard for weight gain.

DH had no extra fat on his body when we met. He eats very well, works out a lot, is a weight lifter as well as doing cardio but when he moved up to 600mg he gained weight. Not a massive amount but he's not had much luck shifting it.

My relative went on it and went from a size 10 to a size 18 in a year. Of course weight gain doesn't come from magic but I can guarantee you my husband does not eat more or move less since increasing his dose.

[thedevilinmyshoes]

Hopefully they can find you some weight neutral alternatives OP.