Posted by Cam W. on August 9, 2000, at 6:48:35
In reply to Re: question for cam, posted by paul on August 8, 2000, at 23:39:55
Paul - Seroquel is low on the list of causing weight gain. It causes more weight gain than ziprasidone (not released) and less than clozapine, olanzapine, or risperdal. When you add the older, conventional antipsychotics into the mix, Seroquel usually causes much more weight gain than loxapine and much less weight gain than chlorpromazine. Again, an important consideration is "your mileage may vary".
Whether a drug will cause will cause weight gain for "you" individually is decided by the way your body is put together. The above ordering is a numbers game based on different populations and these differ slightly, depending upon which reference you use.
With the newer atypical antipsyhotics (like seroquel) I tend to gauge response to the drug by the amount of weight that one gains (better response to the effects of the med = greater propensity to gain weight). Notice how I said "propensity to gain weight". What this means is that you can have a good response to an antipsychotic without gaining weight; if you are very diligent in monitoring your diet and exercise (eg feel hunger a lot - it seems). Usually, the more weight one gains, the better the antipsychotic works (the same can sort of be said for SSRIs).
The avoidance of weight gain may not apply to clozapine, where, no matter what you do, you will probably gain weight. With olanzapine the weight gain seems to peak at 8 months; with risperidone, 2 years (slower rate of weight gain than with the other two). With Seroquel, I do not see much weight gain, but it does happen.
Paraphrasing Bill Wirshing out of UC Berkley (I believe), "The more toxic the atypical antipsychotic, the better it works. Clozapine, highly toxic and highly efficaious. Quetiapine (Seroquel) low toxicity, but it doesn't work."
I used to think that Seroquel didn't work, but in a subset of the population, it works like a damn. Since you are gaining weight the Seroquel is working, therefore (and since I think I know you well enough from your posts to get away with this) get off your butt and do some sit-ups and push-ups; go for long walks. Start the exercising slowly and work your way into doing more or you will be bound to fail. Also, carrot sticks (or those cute little carrots in a bag - Frankenfood?) instead of empty calories (those Cheerios party mix or Doritos).
Lecturing all done. Hope this helps - Cam.
poster:Cam W.
thread:42249
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000729/msgs/42409.html