Patients who used antidepressants gain weight even years later

PanARMENIAN.Net - Antidepressants are associated with significant weight gain, Healthline reports citing a new long-term study published in the BMJ.

Researchers at King’s College London found that all twelve of the leading antidepressants — including fluoxetine (Prozac), sertraline (Zoloft), and escitalopram (Lexapro) — increased risk for weight gain for up to six years after starting treatment.

“Patients who were normal weight were more likely to transition to overweight and overweight patients were more likely to transition to obesity if they were treated with antidepressants,” co-author Dr. Rafael Gafoor, a primary care and public health researcher at King’s College London, told Healthline.

Gafoor and his team analyzed the electronic health records of nearly 300,000 patients living in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2014. The cohort included patients of all different weight categories — from those with a healthy body mass index to those with obesity at the far end of the spectrum.

During the 10-year follow-up, they recorded any period of weight gain of at least five percent of body weight. That’s roughly the equivalent of a 155-pound individual gaining 7 pounds.

According to the study, patients using antidepressants were 21 percent more likely to experience weight gain compared with those not taking them. Additionally, the likelihood that a patient would move up a weight category — from normal to overweight or from overweight to obese — was 29 percent higher than those not taking drugs.

The research also raises concerns about the duration of risk that patients are exposed to. Previous studies correlating antidepressants with weight gain have been short-term, typically less than a year.

Gafoor and his team conclude that not only do antidepressants present increased risk for weight gain over the long term, but that the peak risk period didn’t occur until two to three years of treatment.

During the peak risk period, the risk of gaining weight jumped to 46 percent higher among those taking antidepressants.