Zoloft/Lap Band/Weight Gain?

[Rhonda63 0]

A little background..I had taken Zoloft for the last 8 years for anxiety

(not so much depression). Over the years, I went from 155 pounds to 223

pounds. Not blaming it all on the Zoloft, but I have researched and that does

seem to be a side effect of it. Anyhow, I went off of it back in August of

2004. I didn't really lose any weight during the time I was off of it and having

my band surgery in March 2005 (in honesty, I didn't really try to since I had made up my mind to have lap band surgery) I am now going thru some trying times (not related to the lap band) and

have considered going back on it. My question is, do you think I will have

a weight gain?

Rhonda

Dr Lopez 3/10/05

221/198/140

First Fill 05/07/05 3cc

[La_madam 20]

I gained 65-70 lbs with the Paxil before my lap band and am now off of it, there is no way I would ever go back on that, it has nothing to do with the ammount of food you eat, I ate the same foods that I ate before I started taking the paxil as I did when I was taking it, same ammounts too but gained all that weight. all of those meds make your metabolic rate zero( Paxil, Zoloft, Wellbutrin etc..) I went round and round with my PCP about this and all the different meds. I do not think having the band or not having the band will make a diference , weight gain is still possible, this is just my opinion on it!

[Rhonda63 0]

Thanks Michelle! Maybe I should just try exercising more to help relieve

the stress. I know that if I go back on it, I will gain. I ran into the same

problem with my PCP. He refused to believe that the Zoloft was making me

gain weight. I got the old "if you feel better, you should lose weight" routine.

I knew I had gained a substantial amount of weight to of not changed my

eating habits/job/ or exercise (or lack of) routine. I have seen it happen

to too many people.

Thanks again!

Rhonda

[La_madam 20]

Once you start losing weight alot of the stress may go away, that is what happened to me, I used to take Xanax for anxiety on a daily basis once I was off the Paxil, now I take nothing for anxiety since the weight loss

[DeLarla 22]

I have anxiety disorder to the point I spend my teens and 20s in emergency rooms. At once point it was so severe that my doctor put me on full disablity. It was awful because of all the people in the world that WANTED to go to work, I wasn't able to make it out the front door without a full blown attack.

During those days I was treated like a guinea pig and given every med known to man, including the Zoloft and all the one's Michelle mentioned (except Wellbutrin, which is fairly new.)

My point is that I've lived the hell of needing medications, so I've tried everything along the way. Then one day when I was ready to crack up completely, a plain ole ordinary paramedic told me to drink a 32 ounce cup of Water during an attack. I didn't think I could drink it because I couldn't even breathe, but somehow he helped me through it. Then he made me drink a 2nd one. I was so full and had trouble getting the 2nd cup down, but then I started running to the bathroom. Suddenly I realized that my anxiety attack never went full-blown for the first time in my life.

The paramedic explained to me that the body gets so busy processing all that Water that it can't process and have an anxiety attack at the same time. It works. Plain old water.

To top it off, I got so desperate that I went to a psychic. She touched my hands and jumped back & said I burned her. She told me electricity was flying through my body, then she told me the only way to put out fire is with water. Lots of water.

The last med I tried was Buspar, which nearly caused me to have a seizure. Now I use water therapy, and I haven't had a full blown attack in many years. On a horrible day you might see me with my hands shaking trying to get water down my throat, but soon the panic is gone and I'm just running to the bathroom feeling fine.

Sometimes the answer is right in front of us all along.

[aileena 1]

I heard a few years ago, people getting RX's for an antidepresent, to help them with weight loss. I can't remember which one it is though. Does anyone else remember?

[DtDtKty 0]

Rhonda...I think everyone responds differently to all of the various meds for depression. I have been on Prozac, Zoloft, Wellbutrin, Effexor, and now Cymbalta and have never seen a weight gain that I could pinpoint on the meds. Whether it contributed or not to my weight gain I don't know, but I am doing fine losing weight now. For me, it is worth it to have my sanity back. Like DeLarla, I started having panic attacks so badly that I had to go on disability. The meds and therapy have brought me back to the "land of the living". I haven't had a panic attack or a major depression since April...praise be.

Best of luck to you.

DeLarla...I wish I would have know about the "Water therapy"...sounds much more effective than the Xanax...

[Zoe 6]

I think someone needs to do a major study on antidepressants and weight gain. I've already posted elsewhere about my experience, and while I can't say that Prozac and its SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) friends made me fat -- I did that all by myself -- they didn't exactly help. I complained to my shrink for a few years, and he finally admitted that while there wasn't any medical literature indicating that Prozac led to weight gain, he had heard this from so many of his own patients that he could no longer deny a connection. I suspect other SSRIs may tend to have the same effect. Years ago, a few docs were prescribing Prozac for weight loss. I haven't heard of this for a while; I bet that too many patients realized it didn't work!

Rhonda, talk to your prescribing doc about your concerns. We have different reactions to different drugs. There are some new meds available now that might be better choices for you -- if you decide that drugs are the way to go. For some of us medication is the only thing that brings us back from the brink; for others, it's an ineffective or second-rate solution. Whatever you choose, I hope you feel better soon.

[Dragonwillow 0]

My 13 year old was on Lexapro for awhile for anxiety and depression disorders. She is now off all medicine (thank goodness) and seems to be doing fine. But the reason the doctor chose it was that she is overweight and he didn't want to give her something to cause her to gain.

I haven't tried it but a couple of the ladies at the gym swear that yoga helps with anxiety. Worth a shot.

Melissa

[Eileenja 0]

DeDarla

Thanks so much for your honest post! WoW!!!! I take zoloft every day for general anxiety disorder. I would LOVE to stop taking meds for this. I will definately try the Water thing. Who would have thought of that one. It is definately worth a try. By the way, my doctor choose zoloft because he thought that possibly it would help me loose weight, which it didn't.

Thanks again

Eileen

[Madeline's mom 0]

I am still blown away by Lisa's Water story! I am going to try that if I ever have another panic attack! How weird is that about the psychic telling you the same thing!

[NewDay 0]

Effexor was the only thing to keep my panic attacks at bay. I cannot stop taking them, but i have gained an enormous amount of weight that i contribute entirely to the drug. nothing else has changed for me in the 3 years i have been on the effexor. in the beginning, i lost about 30 pounds,but rebounded and put it and a lot more weight on. My PCP isn't convinced it's the medication, but really all he has to do is look at my chart.

[clarityseeker 1]

I have Panic Disorder and had much the same experience as DeLarla, though not quite as severe. I tried everything -- therapy, self-hypnosis, every anxiety drug available and then, about 10 years ago, my PCP had me try Paxil. It literally changed my life. I went from having multiple daily panic attacks to having none. I have changed dosages over the years a bit and I do also take Xanax, but frankly, I don't plan to stop when I get banded. I know the Paxil has contributed to my weight gain -- along with having 4 kids, not enough time to exercise, and a love for food. But, I am not willing to get off it when I get banded. I know I can lose weight -- I've done it over the years, but not been able to get it all off and/or maintain it. So, I hope that I can lose weight with the band and still take the meds.

The Water treatment is extremely interesting, but I can't take the chance right now to change what I'm doing.

So, anyone with experience on SSRI's and being banded, I'd love to hear how you are doing.

Thanks!

[Sunta 5]

When I was on Zoloft I gained about 45 pounds in four months without changing my eating habits. The weight gain was so fast and so profound that it was frightening. I literally would step on the scale and put on three pounds overnight. It spiraled out of control so fast and furious that I was forced to go off of Zoloft. I have never experienced anything like that. If it had not been for Zoloft, I would not have qualified for the band! I'm not saying it's the same for everyone, but that's how it was for me and it was dramatic. I would never touch another SSRI again with a ten-foot pole.

[Leila 0]

I have very severe depression with some anxiety, severe enough that before they got me on the cocktail I'm taking now of medications that work for me, I was actively trying to suicide for over a year, and spent weeks, sometimes months at a time hospitalized. It took time before they found medication that was effective for me, I take high doses of Effexor, remeron and seroquel. I can never safely go off of them. My depression is very biological, I don't have normal brain chemistry on my own, and if I don't take medication, I go downhill, and fast. I was on the heavier side pre-depression and medication, but not obese. Most people on the medications I'm on, gain anywhere from 60-150lbs, it's standard, according to my psychiatrist. They are all 3 of them medications associated with weight gain, they slow my metabolism, they make me feel hungry all the time, and make me crave carbohydrates. They also cause me to overheat, and make me tired, making excerising anywhere than a swimming pool pretty much impossible. I gained 100lbs from the time I started taking them 4 years ago. Lap-band was a tricky decision for me, how would it work when so much of my weight gain was tied into my medications?, and the fact that I currently still have active depression, I don't get full relief with my meds, I'm unable to work, and I often find myself house bound and unable to get out, or exercise? Would/could lap band make a difference. Talking with my psychiatrist, my family Dr. and the surgeon, the answer seemed to be yes, it could make all the difference. If I don't take my medication my depression will kill me. If I don't lose weight, my body will. There was no other tool that may work for me. I'm two weeks post op. I have very rarely felt hunger, my caloric intake and my Protein, carb and fat intake I chart every day on fitday.com, I've averaged 1200 calories a day, and 75 grams of Protein, low fat. I started my journey post-op 295, pre-op diet got me down to 280 day of surgery, and now I'm 274.5 (though my period started today, the day I normally weigh myself, and I -always- retain 3-7lbs. So I know it's even less than that). I believe it will work for me. I believe I can stay on my medications and can lose the weight. I don't believe the lap-band does it all, but it's a tool. I believe your mental and emotional health is -very- important. I also know from experience that anxiety left untreated can and often will deplete your brain chemsitry and can cause depression, and depression left untreated can worsen and worsen, and that the longer it goes untreated the more it takes to 'fix', if you have mild anxiety and or depression you need lower doses of medication typically to fix it, it will then often stabilize, your brain chemsitry will normalize, and you may be able to go off medication and maintain your own normal balance. The more severe your anxiety/depression is, and/or the longer it goes untreated, the more medication it takes to balance out to normal again, and the longer typically you need to use it, and sometimes, like with me, it becomes unlikely you can ever live without medication. My personal belief, is letting a mood disorder be untreated is like being a diabetic and not taking insulin when you need it, you are possibly causing yourself more damage, and you are diminishing your health and your quality of life. I know not everyone agrees, but that is how I see it, these are biochemical illnesses, and medicine helps restore normalicy. Yes there are side effects, but they are not insurmountable, maybe we will have to work a little harder than some other lap banders, life doesn't dole out fair portions on our plates. I would give your medications a try, I would at least see what happens, see if you can treat yourself with them and restore your mental/emotional health while still working on your healthy weight loss. Maybe it will slow it down, or even plateau for you, but maybe it won't, and maybe it will just be a temporary fix. Don't risk things getting worse with your mood, it's just not worth it. We're all different, we all have different health needs, consult with doctors you trust and decide what is safest and best for you, and the best of luck with it.

XO

Leila