PsychoTropicalResearch, serotonin and serotonin syndrome research.
Antidepressants - Weight gain
Antidepressants - Weight gain
Date Created: 26/03/1999 Last Modified: 15/06/2000 Last Checked: 21/10/2002
The old tricyclic psychotropics cause marked weight gain. That includes the tricyclic antidepressants, the neuroleptics and the old antihistamines. Most of the new neuroleptics also retain this usually disadvantageous propensity.
The reason is almost certainly because they all block post-synaptic histamine receptors (H1). This produces carbohydrate craving and weight gain.
The degree to which they do that is to related to their potency as H1 blockers (antihistamines), which is also why they are sedative.
For all those three classes of drugs the potency as H1 blockers correlates with both the degree of sedation and with the degree of weight gain.
All text ©Dr Ken Gillman MRC Psych - PsychoTropical Research®
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