Why is it difficult to lose weight after taking antidepressants?

Adverse reactions to antidepressant medications occur at the usual doses used to treat depression. These reactions or side effects vary according to the pharmacological treatment that the patient is receiving. One of the effects that frequently occurs among those who have received antidepressants is the difficulty in losing weight once they have gained it.

It is necessary to highlight that Not all antidepressants cause weight gainThere are even some that can generate your loss. Those that increase it tend to come from tricyclic drugs, while those that reduce it come from selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drugs (World Health Organization, 2010).

It has also been found that some specific noradrenergic and serotonergic antidepressants, such as mirtazapine, tend to cause weight gain (Benedi and Romero, 2005).

Antidepressants and weight gain

Weight gain from taking antidepressants is an enigmatic phenomenon for the medical and health community.

This increase can have various causes that make it very difficult to relate it to the medication. directly. It is even believed that it is very possible that the improvement in mood influences appetite.

However, research found that Antidepressant use is positively associated with weight gain; which was influenced by significant interactions between SSRI use, age, and unhealthy lifestyle, including Western dietary pattern, sedentary activity, and smoking (Shi et to the., 2017).

Antidepressants and mood stabilizers appear to alter eating habits by inhibiting serotonin-based regulation of appetite function. This causes the urge to eat even after the stomach is full of food. (Wurtman, 2016).

Additionally, weight gain from antidepressant use can be caused by multiple factors that aggravate this side effect. That’s why It is important to have a healthy diet, exercise and consult a doctor or nutritionist. to develop an eating plan that allows you to regulate your weight.

Among the antidepressants that usually cause weight gain (Hall-Flavin, 2018) we find the following:

Some tricyclic antidepressantssuch as amitriptyline, imipramine (Tofranil), and doxepin.Certain monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), such as phenelzine (Nardil).Paroxetine (Paxil, Pexeva), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).Mirtazapine (Remeron), which is an atypical antidepressant, a medication that does not fit neatly into another category of antidepressants.

Why is it difficult to lose weight after treatment with antidepressants?

People who gain weight as a result of antidepressants differ greatly from those who are overweight or obese. The latter usually have problems with their weight due to an unhealthy lifestyle, genetic (or epigenetic) problems, high-calorie diet and lack of physical exercise, among other causes.

On the other hand, people who have gained weight due to antidepressant medication did not necessarily have problems maintaining it before starting treatment. In these cases, losing weight can be more difficult, since The cause is not in the person’s lifestyle, but in their body, as a consequence of the medication.

Although there are people who are able to regain their weight after stopping treatment with antidepressants, others are unable to do so and find this process difficult. There is no clear explanation as to why these phenomena occur.

Is it possible to lose weight after taking antidepressants?

Although many people affected by this problem find it difficult to lose weight, It is not an impossible goal to achieve. In a new study by Wharton et al. (2019), it was found that patients who participated in a weight control program lost significant weight regardless of the use of psychiatric medications.

In this study, the sample of women who took psychotropic drugs lost a similar amount of weight as women who did not. In contrast, men who took antidepressants lost only slightly less weight than those who did not take them.

On the one hand, the results of this research are encouraging because they demonstrate that It is possible to lose weight through a weight control program. On the other hand, they are relevant for all health professionals who want to help their patients lose weight after treatment with antidepressants.

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