Psychiatria pre prax 5/2009

Influence of antidepressant on body weight

The paper deals with weight gain during antidepressant treatment. The weight gain can be a sign of recovery or an adverse event of the treatment. Changes in weight differ depending on which AD is used. A long-term treatment is usually associated with weight gain. On the base of retrospective charts analysis we found that some treatment strategies used in patients hospitalized with severe depression can lead to a more robust weight gain. The augmentation of ADs with atypical antipsychotics seems to be the most risky. Further the knowledge about the mutual relationship between depression and metabolic syndrome is reviewed. Shortly, treatment possibilities of obesity associated with antidepressant treatment are mentioned.

Keywords: antidepressants, weight gain, atypical antipsychotics, metabolic syndrome, obesity treatment