{"id":1620,"date":"2010-09-02T17:18:22","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T17:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/?p=1620"},"modified":"2018-05-15T10:00:11","modified_gmt":"2018-05-15T17:00:11","slug":"reader-question-the-bipolar-disorder-antipsychotic-and-weight-gain-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/reader-question-the-bipolar-disorder-antipsychotic-and-weight-gain-dilemma\/","title":{"rendered":"Reader Question: The Bipolar Disorder Antipsychotic and Weight Gain Dilemma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here is a question about the antipsychotic Seroquel and weight gain.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Hi Julie,<\/p>\n

I have been on Seroquel for over 5 years now. I have Bipolar with psychosis. I am tired of the weight gain fight. Seroquel has been very affective in controlling the psychosis which I have frequently. Is there anything that can replace the Seroquel in controlling the psychosis without the weight gain?<\/p>\n

Stinker<\/p>\n

Hi There Stinker,<\/p>\n

Here is a short answer to your question:<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Here is a longer one:<\/p>\n

Everyone responds differently to antipsychotics.\u00a0 Many gain wait on them, but some don’t. It’s very, very well documented for example that Zyprexa has an average 20 lb weight gain.\u00a0 Seroquel, Risperdal, and the other atypical antipsychotics are known for weight gain around the stomach. This leads to a complication called Metabolic Syndrome- I wrote quite a great article on this last year for www.healthyplace.com if you want to read more about it. Just type in Julie Fast and Metabolic Syndrome and it will come up.<\/p>\n

When the atypical antipsychotic Abilify came out, it was touted as an antipsychotic that didn’t cause weight gain. I have now heard from people that it definitely can. But, overall it’s considered to have the least weight gain, so talk to your doctor about it. The problem is that it’s not simply a replacement for Seroquel.<\/strong> They work differently.<\/p>\n

It’s always personal.\u00a0I know people on Zyprexa who have\u00a0not gained weight at all\u00a0and then there are those who gain weight up to a certain point and then the weight gain stops.<\/p>\n

It is definitely something to discuss with your prescriber.\u00a0 Just make sure you have a plan in place to get help if the psychosis comes back on a new med.<\/p>\n

I am unable to take antipsychotics because the weight gain and hunger are so intense and the weight gain is so immediate, I can’t stay on them. I also have a lot of other side effects that compound things.<\/p>\n

It’s a terrible trade off sometimes-\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0what is worse- the psychosis or the weight gain? I know that a lot of people say the weight gain.<\/p>\n

I wish it were only about eating less and exercising more. That helps, but it doesn’t necessarily\u00a0stop anti psychotic weight gain.\u00a0For many, the goal is to minimize the weight gain\u00a0by dealing with the\u00a0hunger hallucinations in a different way than eating.\u00a0 It also helps to have zero junk food in the house.\u00a0 That helps the 2:AM hunger binges!<\/p>\n

I wish I had the answer to this one so that we could get the anti psychotic benefits without gaining weight.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your question,<\/p>\n

Julie<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Here is a question about the antipsychotic Seroquel and weight gain.<\/p>\n

Hi Julie,<\/p>\n

I have been on Seroquel for over 5 years now. I have Bipolar with psychosis. I am tired of the weight gain fight. Seroquel has been very affective in controlling the psychosis which I have frequently. Is there anything that can replace the Seroquel in controlling the psychosis without the weight gain?<\/p>\n

Stinker<\/p>\n

Hi There Stinker,<\/p>\n

Here is a short answer to your question:<\/p>\n

Maybe.<\/p>\n

Here is a longer one:<\/p>\n

Everyone responds differently to antipsychotics. Many gain wait on them, but some don’t. It’s very, very well documented for example that Zyprexa has an average 20 lb weight gain. Seroquel, Risperdal, and the other atypical antipsychotics are known for weight gain around the stomach. This leads to a complication called Metabolic Syndrome- I wrote quite a great article on [ Read More ]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1620"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11827,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1620\/revisions\/11827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bipolarhappens.com\/bhblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}