The study examines weight gain associated with the use of various antidepressants.

He weight gain This bad influence belonging antidepressants and neurolepticsThis side effect can cause numerous concomitant diseases and reduce life expectancyThe use of these drugs is growing worldwide, and weight gain which they produce, represents a common clinical problem.

Alberto Ortiz Lobo, MD, psychiatrist at the Carlos III Day Hospital at the University Hospital of La Paz (Madrid), noted Science Media Center (SMC)assures that “the prescription of antidepressants continues to increase year after year and They are accepted by about 10% of Spaniards“.

For this reason, Ortiz Lobo emphasizes that “anti-obesity drugs are a crucial issue because weight gain worsens physical health and quality of lifemay lead to refusal of treatment, as well as low self-esteem people, which is especially important when we talk about mental health.

The aim of this systematic review, which publishes Annals of Internal Medicine is an assessment of the possible association between treatment with antidepressants and antipsychotics and weight gain.

The findings, as the study authors also emphasize, “go beyond helping to select the right antidepressant for those who need it, they are that we can rethink the damage caused by his appointment and limit it to those people who will really benefit from the treatment,” Ortiz insists.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Institute were responsible for the new analysis, which looked at electronic health records more than 183,000 adults started treatment with one of eight antidepressants first line for assessing weight changes due to medication use 6, 12 and 24 months later before participants began to take it.

The drugs studied included the commonly prescribed sertraline, citalopram, bupropion, escitalopram, fluoxetine, venlafaxine, paroxetine, and duloxetine. The researchers found differences in drug-induced weight gain between different subclasses of antidepressants.

After 6 months users escitalopram, paroxetine And duloxetine they earned approximately 0.3 and 0.4 kg more weight and were 10–15% more likely to gain at least 5% of their starting weight than sertraline users.

Users Bupropion gained 0.22 kg less weight and were 15% less likely to gain at least 5% of their starting weight than sertraline users.

Usage fluoxetine was not associated with weight change after six months compared to use sertraline.

Direct conclusions: conscious and controlled use

The study authors say doctors and patients may want to consider these differences when making decisions about what specific antidepressant to startespecially for patients concerned about weight gain.

In this sense, Ortiz brings into discussion the fragile balance of drug dependence in this type of pathology and points out that “a significant part ordinary mental suffering can be solved with social and/or psychological interventionswithout the need for antidepressants, although this is the most common and immediate response.

A psychiatrist at La Paz Hospital says People who are going to take antidepressants should be properly informed about the consequences. side effects, “as in this case with weight gain, and consider the possibility of prescribing them on the basis of an informed consent document, as is usually done with surgical interventions and other treatments”

For Camille LasalleAssociate Professor specializing in nutritional epidemiology and cardiovascular health at ISGlobal, as indicated QMS“The results are consistent with the literature data regarding bupropion and can help patients and doctors make decisions about the type of antidepressant that should be prescribed”

Lassalle also highlights the design of this project in his work: “Simulating clinical trials is an innovative way to draw conclusions.” cause and effect relationship based on real life data from electronic clinical data.” And while it stands out for its methodological rigor and large sample size, it mentions restrictions “relatively short duration of weight change over two years (another study who used electronic health records in the UK to study weight change over 10 years) and the lack of data on lifestyle factors that we know influence weight gain, such as diet, alcohol consumption and physical activity.

Previous reviews on the link between antidepressants and weight gain

Commenting on these data, Amelia Martí del Moral, PhD, professor of human physiology at the University of Navarra, CIBER Physiopathology of Obesity, Instituto Salvador Carlos III and IDISNA, Navarra, reminds SMC what her group has already done. similar work in 2019In their case, these were age-grouped cohorts that included 27 independent matched cohort studies involving children (2–18 years) and adults (18–103 years).

“Most of the included studies showed 5% weight gain in people taking antidepressantsHowever, quetiapine, haloperidol, trifluoperazine, risperidone, aripiprazole, olanzapine, and clozapine increased body weight by 7% from baseline, which is considered a clinically significant result. Interestingly, Weight loss was found in individuals taking bupropion.“, – Marti del Moral explains in detail.