Antidepressants: Defused fattening foods

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With antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs, some patients gain weight significantly. Scientists have now found risk factors that can be used to identify the sick who are most likely to gain weight. For them it may be important to switch to other, less fat-inducing psycho pills.

Fatal discontinuation of therapy

Weight gain, along with other side effects, is a common reason why patients discontinue psychiatric drug therapy. Then there is a risk of relapse - or the drugs have no opportunity to develop their positive effect on the psyche. If the patients put up with the extra pounds, there is a risk of obesity-related complications, including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain types of cancer.

Psychiatrists from the Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry in Munich have analyzed which patient groups are more likely to increase with psychotropic drugs. To do this, they evaluated the data from 900 patients and determined which of them gained medically relevant weight in a treatment period of five weeks.

Risk factors for getting fat

The scientists found four factors that favor weight gain in the context of therapy with psychotropic drugs. The following were particularly often affected:

• Patients with a low or normal body mass index (BMI).
• Patients with major depression.
• Patients who also showed psychotic symptoms such as paranoia or hallucinations.
• Regardless of this, some antidepressants are known to be particularly beneficial for weight gain. Those who received these were also more likely to gain weight.

The scientists rated each of these four factors with a point. Those who met several factors were correspondingly more at risk.

Review prescriptions critically

"In our study, patients with a risk score of 3 or 4 showed on average a clinically relevant weight gain after five weeks of treatment," summarizes the head of the study, Stefan Kloiber. The researchers recommend that the treating physicians, especially for patients with the identified risk factors, critically examine the prescription of medication, which is often associated with weight gain, as a side effect. (cf)

Source: Press release Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry: Psychotropic drugs as fattening up: It doesn't have to be! 06/24/2015

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