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Q.

Why do antidepressants lead to weight gain?

Related Topics: Antidepressant, Weight Gain
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"I have had patients who swear that they are not eating any more, but still gaining weight, so that tells us there is some kind of metabolic influence going on. I have also had patients tell me that they are not only more hungry and eating more, but that the medicines are encouraging a carbohydrate craving that is hard to control, so we know appetite also plays a role," Norman Sussman, MD, a psychiatrist and associate dean for postgraduate medical programs at the NYU School of Medicine.

"It might be a situation where someone feels so much better when taking an antidepressant that lots of things suddenly start feeling more pleasurable to them, and food is just one of them. So in this instance, they may actually be overeating and not even realize they are doing so," says Jack E. Fincham, PhD, RPh, professor of pharmacy practice at the School of Pharmacy at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

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