CBC: "...balancing weight gain risk againsts benefits of mental health meds"

The full title of this CBC article is "More communication key to balancing weight gain risk against benefits of mental health meds"; "Risk of weight gain must be re-evaluated by patients and doctors throughout a patient's illness, say experts".

 

From the article:

 

"In Hertz's case, lithium, a mood stabilizer, has been the mainstay of his treatment although at times, he has had to combine it with up to two other medications to find a combination that worked well. Over the years, he's been on various combinations of lithium, Zyprexa (olanzapine), Seroquel (quetiapine), Latuda (​lurasidone HCl), Abilify (aripiprazole), Prozac (fluoxetine) and Wellbutrin (bupropion).

 

Weight gain is a known side-effect of lithium and common SSRI antidepressants such as Paxil (paroxetine) and Prozac (fluoxetine) and as well as what are known as atypical antipsychotics, such as Zyprexa (olazapine) and Seroquel (quetiapine).

 

The more of those type of medications a patient is on and the longer they stay on them, the greater the risk."

 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/mental-health-medication-weight-1.4203983

Thanks for this Lapis.  Good on the CBC again.  I wish they'd also mentioned benzodiazepines specifically.  Only antidepressants and antipsychotics are named here as drugs that cause weight gain.  I gained 40 lbs on clonazepam and was always told it was the AD.  Yet, when I tapered off the AD, I lost no weight, but 6 months into my taper of the clonazepam, I lost weight frighteningly fast- 50lbs and then some.  I'm still too thin. 

 

This poor man gained 200lbs, had bariatric surgery and has lost less than 30lbs.  I think it's next to impossible to lose weight caused by psych drugs while on psych drugs.  I tried and failed. 

 

I won't even comment on those diagnoses he received at 20-years-old that led him here to a whole new set of health concerns. 

I feel bad for this man too. The diagnoses, the meds, the weight gain, other side effects, etc....Once that whole process starts, it can be very hard to stop it. If a person doesn't do his own research, he can easily get caught up and dragged along, even though there might have been better options from the beginning. I'm a huge skeptic about many of these medications, so it makes it hard to see that there might be some benefits. Gaining a ton of weight has to be pretty darn depressing!

Yup, very true.

 

I often think, when you're better and enjoying life, no one's going to be here posting all these articles and studies and it's gonna be just that much harder for folks doing their own research.  At least you have and are creating this great repository of data for future use.

The research has been somewhat therapeutic for me, so it's my pleasure to do it. If I'm dizzy and wired, I try to focus on learning something, and then at least I haven't completely wasted the time that I might otherwise have frittered away with withdrawal-induced anxiety. As well, I find that it's good to discuss these issues with others who are going through the same thing. Before I joined BB, I had amassed a fair amount of research, but the articles sat here in my "Documents" file on my computer or in an actual file on the floor. I really wanted to share it with others. There really is a ton of information online, but many people either can't or won't go hunting for it.

 

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on this particular article, benzohno. I, too, applaud CBC for looking into some of these issues. I'm still hoping for a big investigative piece on CBC TV/Radio on the topic of benzodiazepines, but we'll have to see. I hope it won't require some terrible things to happen before benzos get the attention they require.

 

 

I'm glad it's therapeutic.  I thought it might be.  It's been good for me too, discussing the issues and reading  discussions.  It helps in understanding, putting the pieces together, plus it's been a great distraction. 

 

I think medical journals can be especially intimidating and finding the information does involve more than a google search.  I may have been under the impression that most studies weren't even accessible to me as a non-doctor, but because you've made them easily accessible and in one place, I read them. 

 

I hope for the same with the CBC.  I'm waiting with you, sometimes not very patiently.

Hi benzohno,

I remember reading a post from another BB on the topic of benzo research. He was complaining that benzodiazepines aren't being studied at all, and I thought, "What the heck? There's tons of research underway!" But of course, most people don't go searching PubMed to look for info. For part of the time, I was lucky enough to have a person who had access to a medical library, so if I found an abstract on PubMed that was of particular interest, she could look for the full study at the library. That helped a lot. The abstracts just give a snapshot, while the full studies flesh out the stories more fully.

I think the risks are so profound with these pills. Along with obesity come the fears of heart disease and diabetes. I wish so much that there was more attention to proper nutrition, exercise, relaxation. I bet a lot of ills of society would vanish, and with it the pills. Taking pills leaves you in a more sickened state, not able to exercise well, as we on BB well know. The brain is terribly compromised. I feel for this man, but at least he is starting an exercise regimen. It's an uphill battle with the pills, though. 

Thanks for explaining how that works that Lapis!  I wasn’t entirely sure this was why I couldn’t always get the full study when I tried on occasion.  I think it’s been explained here before, but my brain would rather shut down than read a thread about that.  Yes, I think at one time I was also under the impression no one was studying benzos in any way, but I can now see that’s not true.  It is good to see they keep coming and I’m guessing you’re being selective, so that’s not even all of them you're posting.  One day hopefully someone will do something helpful (for us) with all this benzo information.

 

I agree Terry.  I think as a society we would be healthier and thinner if we didn't turn to pills as the cure.  A Brazilian woman started talking to me once while I was putting up posters and she said, her husband, who was a doctor, said that there are only 10 medications that we need in this world, the rest we can do without.  I believe that.  I’ve said it before, my Mom is always telling me how her friends and aquaintances have so many health problems and we both know it is because they are on so many drugs.  It also doesn't help that they also don’t eat well.  Many of them don't like fruit or vegetables, but rather lots of sweets and pastries. 

I just watched a thought-provoking documentary on Netflix called "What The Health?", and it addressed some of the issues you just touched upon, benzohno. The premise of the film is the connection between diet and health issues, and it brings in the roles of Big Pharma and large food companies, and even certain health organizations such as those related to cancer and diabetes in the U.S. It certainly got me thinking, although I suspect that some of the info might have been a bit skewed towards the vision that the filmmakers had. There are a few scenes where they show people who are on a number of medications, and when they change their diets, they are able to get rid of the meds, including benzos and SSRIs. No withdrawals? Really?

 

And yes, benzohno, you're right that I only post abstracts that I think might be of interest here. Some of them are just not relevant to our situations. Suffice to say, though, that there is definitely lots of research going on. Unfortunately, I do see a lot of repetition, such as the connection between benzos and falls and fractures in seniors. I don't understand why it needs to be studied and re-studied and then studied again, without a major focus on making changes.

"They should do a study on that!", is my new quip, said frequently and in frustration, when watching the news.  When it's action that is needed, all to often "they" call for yet another study.  OMG, enough already! 

 

"What The Health", I like that title.  It sounds like a good documentary.  I'm pretty sure I would not have ended up on drugs had I known the IBS was due to gluten intolerance/Celiac disease.  When I discovered I felt WAY better gluten-free (getting a computer helped a lot to learn what contained gluten) is when I decided to get off the drugs.  Who knew it would take this long to return to health.  I feel like my gut is rebuilding it self from scratch.

Yes, if you have Netflix, do check it out. If I hadn't cut out meat and dairy already, I would certainly do so after watching that documentary!

 

I think there was yet another study on caffeine, and of course, it said the opposite to whatever was said in the last study that came out on the topic! Crazy stuff. Reading abstracts on PubMed has taught me to be skeptical, and also to look a bit deeper, when possible. The abstracts don't tell the whole story. Some studies have very small sample groups. Some might involve conflicts of interest. Etc. Studies about what people eat generally involve people giving their own accounts of what they remember eating, and not necessarily what they actually eat. The same might be true of medication. Not everyone writes down exactly what they took, and some people take more or less than what is prescribed. It's extremely difficult to get a true sense of what people take, or eat, for that matter.

 

Ah well, it's good to access the studies, but we should keep asking the hard questions.