A New Study Links Antidepressants to Weight Gain

A new study published in The BMJ has found that antidepressant use may be associated with weight gain over time. “Patients who were normal weight were more likely to transition to overweight, and overweight patients were more likely to transition to obesity if they were treated with antidepressants,” said study co-author Rafael Gafoor, a primary care and public health researcher at King’s College London, in an email to TIME. The researchers used data from the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink, a large collection of electronic health records. Their analysis included almost 295,000 people of all different weights. Researchers then monitored the health records for antidepressant use and weight gain over time, accounting for other factors that could affect weight gain, like age, chronic disease diagnoses, smoking status and taking other drugs. Those who were prescribed antidepressants during the first year of the study were 21% more likely to have gained at least 5% of their starting body weight over the 10 years of follow-up, compared to people not taking the drugs. The risk of weight gain appeared to be greatest in the second and third years of treatment and remained elevated for six years after beginning a course of treatment. “[It] may take some time for weight gain to be noticeable and recorded into medical records,” Gafoor says. Some drugs were more strongly associated with weight gain than others, the study found. People taking mirtazap...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime Mental Health/Psychology onetime Source Type: news