Anti-psychotic medication and weight gain.

I've been on Quetiepine/seroquel several times. Lithium before hand for two years, which broke me out and made me gain almost a stone or two, 3 years ago I was prescribed seroquel, but due to my eating disorder the side effects stating 'weight gain' terrified me. I stayed Pro-longed release but it did keep me in the meds fog, and a beast of an appetite, triggering bulimia/restricting intake. I came off it, went onto abilify, again, perpetually monged out. risperidone was more weight gain I could handle.

However, due to recent 'delusional thinking' ending in a coma, I've been prescribed seroquel again. initially 500mg when first prescribed , which I wasn't taking unknowingly by my Dr due to plausible weight gain. cold turkey off seroquel after weeks of stashing them instead of taking them for the last few months ago,cold turkey.
However my recent mood instability/rapid shifting and various self damaging decisions and behaivour sent me into hospitalized coma, and become obvious I needed a medication assessment, alas, I'm back on seroquel 100mg instant release. I take it before bed due to how much it dumbs me down. I'm talking, cant even get myself dressed, forgetting what im looking for half the time, feeling quite fatigue of a morning, but still unsure if my weight could shoot up after dropping two stone after moving out, triggering my low weight due to anorexia relapse, something I'm working hard at as it is, however unavoidable vast weight gain would intensify my anxieties and E.D problems threefold.

Apologies for the 'verbal vomit'. But any advice.experience would be appreciated. Peace x

I think Seroquel can affect different people in different ways. I know someone who took it and experienced weight gain. However when I took it I had no noticeable weight gain. I had other side effects but weight gain wasn't one of them. The main difficulties I had was with not sleeping which is the main reason I was prescribed it (to try and get me off some other sleep meds) and it also affected my mood leaving me feeling very agitated and irritable all the time. But the sleep problems were the reason I stopped taking it.

It does sound like you perhaps need some medication to help with those symptoms, because coma isn't good. Obviously something you need to discuss with your doctors though.

Thanks for the advice, it's true it does effects us all differently I suppose, not all side effects are set in stone. With me Quetiepeine wipes me out, one of my issues with it, but it does help me sleep and works as an adjunct to my mood stabilizers, hopefully now I'm not on such a high dose I'll be able to avoid binge eating and weight gain. Take care.

I'm also on 100mg quetiapine having changed from a combination of lithium, aripiprazole (abilify) and pregabalin... I'm pretty sure it was the pregabalin that was the culprit but taking that combination made me hungry ALL the time. I gained nearly 4 stone over a couple of years despite being very active and trying to eat a balanced diet, and god I hate those 4 stone so much... Since getting pregnant, I have switched to just the quetiapine and my appetite went WAY down straight away. I even lost weight in my first trimester (by accident). The morning sickness probably contributed a lot but even now the morning sickness has been gone for a few weeks, my appetite is still much lower than it was on all the other meds. I'm having to remind myself to eat a lot of the time so I don't keep losing weight as it's not great for the baby otherwise. So it's certainly not giving me a big appetite and I'm not gaining any more weight despite the pregnancy and some unhealthy cravings.

I'm so happy about this I'm going to ask to stay on this and scrap the pregabalin when I'm allowed my old meds again post-pregnancy!

Hope that helps

http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2010/10/ ... d_fat.html

Frankly I find that using a heavy-duty AP like Zyprexa as a PRN to be very effective. It works fast, works well, and I don't have any averse reactions/effect of only taking it on very bad days.

The problem? The vast majority of psychiatrists are very rigid thinkers and do not like to deviate from well pretty much anything. So even if you explain to them taking it as a PRN is working beautifully, most will just get super bent out of shape and consider it "noncompliance" and not want to work with you anymore. So in order to pull it off, you essentially have to lie to them and let them believe you take it every day. This leads to a further downside in that you will wind up with a pretty huge stockpile of pills, so if you have impulsive suicidal issues, you'll need to flush most of your stash periodically.

I was prescribed seroquel to help me sleep. It gave me an insatiable appetite. I used to be slender and now I cannot fit into any of my pants. I am going to the VA for me medical care. The nurse who prescribes meds will not give me what I need. She makes me go through med after med despite knowing what works. As of right now I am back to taking what I was taking before being seen by the VA. One antidepressant and trip after trip to the hospital for suicidal thoughts.

Good news!, there is no evidence to support that one anti-psychotic works any better than another when it comes to treating psychosis. (if a doctor tries to argue with you, say "where is the evidence? HMM? show me", they will be unable to produce any but their own anecdotes). More good news is that there are anti-psychotics on the market that are NOT associated with weight gain such as Geodon and Saphris with Abilify tending to have less weight gain than all the remaining atypical anti-psychotics. I suggest Saphris and you can say "good bye" weight gain.

The problem is, most doctors really don't give a rats ass about any side effect a patient has to suffer from so long as the patient doesn't a) die in the immediate future, and b) form some addiction/substance abuse. The myth is that doctors care, the reality is that they don't. There are those who even worse stick people on Zyprexa for stuff like insomnia or anxiety, and it shows the total disregard for patient's best interest and wellbeing when there are so many other options that should be chosen first before ever putting a patient on something like Zyprexa.

Worse is that unlike some side effects like headaches, or nausea which don't cause any secondary health problems and are not a threat to your overall health, weight gain is actually a serious very side effect. Weight gain can cause a entire host of physical as well as emotional/mental health problems that become independent of the original problem that the doctor was trying to treat. Doctors are absolutely reckless in this area. I have read forums in which even 14 year old girls have been shoved onto Zyprexa garbage by their irresponsible/reckless doctors and who have had their weight double, ballooning up to over 250 lbs. Patients who get diabetes type II because their doctor put them on an anti-psychotic and let their weight just go off the deep end.

Do you think that if you got diabetes type II from your anti-psychotic (a very real risk) that your doctor would be at your bedside, or fill in for you at work? You think you would would even get an apology or even so much as an "ooops did I do that?". NO. Doctor's don't give a flying ###$ about you. The reality is every patient in western medicine must advocate for themselves and look out for their best interests because chances are, your doctor doesn't give a ###$. Don't judge him by his words, or his fake smile, judge by him his actions, his empathy or lack there of.

smooth37909 wrote:I was prescribed seroquel to help me sleep. It gave me an insatiable appetite. I used to be slender and now I cannot fit into any of my pants. I am going to the VA for me medical care. The nurse who prescribes meds will not give me what I need. She makes me go through med after med despite knowing what works. As of right now I am back to taking what I was taking before being seen by the VA. One antidepressant and trip after trip to the hospital for suicidal thoughts.

VA? Are you in the United States? Saphris is sedating, can be used for sleep and does not weight gain. Topamax is also a mood stabilizer, which actually causes weight loss. Both are available in the United States. You need to stand up for yourself, and call your "nurse" out on his/her total indifference to your concerns and your health or else he/she will continue to walk all over you. Tell her/him that they are clearly not acting in your best interests whatsoever and it needs to change. Tell him/her that weight gain is not "NO BIG DEAL", that is is not only distressing to you but it is actually harmful for your health and completely unnecessary when there are other options available that do not cause weight gain. Print off a list of some scholarly articles online about all the physical health problems associated with being over weight and then smack the papers down in front of him/her while you lay it out.

Medications that can be used for sleep in the US that don't cause weight gain and don't include any scheduled drugs:

Saphris
Geodon (really sedating)
Gabapentin
Trazodone(next to no weight gain if any)

If you ask for Saphris or Geodon and your nurse says to you "no that's what we would call an anti-psychotic and those drugs are reserved for people suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar, and are not meant to be used to treat problems sleeping.

Respond to her by saying "Seroquel is not approved for the treatment of any sleep disorder by the FDA, Health Canada, or any other government regulatory body anywhere in the world. Seroquel is an atypical anti-psychotic and using it to treat any sleep disorder would be considered an off-label use. Both Saphris and Geodon fit all the same criteria as Seroquel as neither are approved to treat any sleep disorder either, and both are atypical anti-psychotics and using them to treat a sleep disorder would be considered an "off-label" use as well. So please explain again your logic/reasoning as to why I can have one medication but not the other?"

That will shut them down really quick if they give you any trouble asking for them and make them look like an idiot. Without any further objections, they should write you a prescription. It is that easy.