Mental Health Which antipsychotics have low weight gain

[ross46]

Most of my doctors just prescribe meds and then look confused about the interaction till the look at their BNF!! I'm going to ask about abilify, but ask a lot of questions regarding akathisia. Found a paper that said the chances of akathissia with abilify is about 15-25%

http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/196/2/89

Though it dies say that its about 10% for zyprexa and 13% for seroquel, so if i tolerated them without it i'm hoping that i won't get it with abilify. the paper also states you can take propranolol to combat the effects which i take for anxiety at the same doses only PRN. the other option is mirtazapine which is the most clinically significant but then there's the problem of weight gain which is why i want to get off zyprexa in the first place!! it's so bloody confusing, but i want an idea of what i want so i don't get an idiot doctor giving me a medication which isn't going to work or cause intolerable side effects.

on the inhibitory action of buprenorphine on oxycodone and abilify, it's a good thing with the oxy as i get better pain relief than if i wasn't on transtec, but thankyou for the information so i can make sure the psych knows not to give me a high dose which is then even higher with the inhibition.

To anyone who is taking abilify, what sort of doses are you taking? I was on 17.5mg of zyprexa with 50mg of seroquel which worked well for me apart from weight gain. What sort of dose would be normal bearing this in mind? Once again thank you all!!

 

[crOOk]

I would have guessed aripiprazole, but according to this article your chances of not gaining weight are very slim (pun intended).

I gained 35kg (77lbs) within 10 months of first being started on neuroleptics. I was pretty happy about that, considering I weighed 55kg pre-treatment (at 177cm or 5'10'').

It is extremely difficult not to gain weight on neuroleptics, but people seem to forget that there is no weight gain without excess energy consumed. I for my part can easily eat 5000-6000kcal per day without noticing any weight gain and would have an extremely hard time reducing that number to say 2000kcal, but no matter how much your metabolism is slowed an generally just fucked you will not gain weight if you do not eat too much, as little as that may be. A huge problem for me were sugar cravings. Do not underestimate that side effect with all the talk about metabolic changes.

I would eat whenever I woke up at night, always keeping a few lbs of candy next to my pillow. If you can get past that desire and replace the candy I ate with veggies, you may be fine. Your body does need energy at all times to maintain your body functions. Sleep less, do physical exercise (in other words increase your energy demand), but most importantly: Stay below your calory intake (decrease energy intake) and there is NO WAY you will gain any weight. It's just physically impossible. I hope that's comforting!

 

[belfort]

i take seroquel and havent noticed any weight gain..i dont think any medication just makes you gain weight unless they give you a sweet tooth to where you are just eating nonstop..

 

[crOOk]

i take seroquel and havent noticed any weight gain..i dont think any medication just makes you gain weight unless they give you a sweet tooth to where you are just eating nonstop..

Not entirely true. It's a mix of both. Most atypicals have very profound effects on metabolism. There's a reason why olanzapine causes diabetes. However, no weight gain without excessive calory intake, you are absolutely correct about that. Just like not doing sports or having hypotheroidism won't ever make you fat as long as you don't eat too much.

For me the 8000kcal I stuffed into myself on a daily basis were problematic during my first 10 months on olanzapine lol. I would sometimes go through a lb of crystalline sucrose in a day and that was just to sweeten my tea. Well the tea served to moisten the sugar lol. Always saturated it with sugar at 95°C, then ate whatever excess sugar would be left in the cup. I actually bought bottles of syrup and drank those in a matter of hours. Peanut butter and chocolate spread by the glass... A huge stash of candy around my pillow. Hmmmm... Those were the days.

I was also lifting very heavily at the time, so my strength gains were huge. I stopped when all but one pair of my pants grew too small (well it was me who was growing) due to all the squatting, deadlifting and eating. Just goes to show that the weight gain often experienced on neuroleptics does have it's advantages.