Antidepressent Drugs That Cause Weight Loss

Depression is defined as a sense of hopelessness, helplessness and futility and it takes many forms. Situational depression is a response to a sad event or a series of losses. Dysphoria is a generally saddened mood and major depressive disorder is diagnosed when depression interferes with normal daily life for a prolonged period of time.
Many antidepressants can cause weight gain, whether by increasing appetite or changing metabolism. Others can help with weight loss.

Buproprion or Wellbutrin for Weight Loss

Very low calorie diets and those that omit whole groups of foods are difficult to sustain over time. Knowing this, researchers at Duke University wanted to find a way to make long-term weight management plan, using a moderate and well-balanced 1,600-calories-a-day diet easier to sustain for as long as it takes to correct weight.
Wellbutrin had been used, off label, as a weight loss medication, for many years but without quantitative research to demonstrate it's effectiveness. The Duke team recruited 50 obese men and women and gave 18 of them Wellbutrin, and the others a placebo. Those taking Wellbutrin lost an average of 4.9 percent of their body weight in the first eight weeks compared to 1.3 percent lost by those taking the placebo but more importantly the Wellbutrin group reached an average weight loss of 12.9 percent at 24 weeks and 73.5 percent of the weight lost was from fat.
These percentages may not seem dramatic, but it meant that a woman weighing 180 lbs. at the start of the study could expect to weigh 157 lbs. at the end of six months.
The Duke researchers chose to use Wellbutrin SR, at a dose of 400 mg per day as the test dose, gradually increasing the amount received until this dose was reached.
Although well tolerated, Wellbutrin should not be used in clients with any history of seizure disorders. Seizures have occurred in three to four out of 1,000 patients taking the medication at 400mg per day, according to the manufacturer.

Prozac or Fluoxetine

The FDA has only approved Prozac for the treatment of depression, but it is also prescribed off label for weight loss.
In an analysis of multiple clinical studies of Prozac's efficacy in achieving and maintaining weight management, University of Louisiana researchers Drs. George Bray and Frank Greenway wrote that Prozac can induce a weight loss of approximately 4 to 8 lbs. over 24 weeks, but that it is not appropriate for long-term use because 50 percent of the weight lost was regained during the next six months, even on the medication.

Contrave in FDA Approval Process

A combination of two FDA approved medications, Wellbutrin SR and Naltrexone, a medication used to treat addiction to alcohol and opiates, made it to the final stage of the Food and Drug Administration's approval process on June 1, 2010. The medication combination exceeded the FDA requirements with 48 to 56 percent of study participants losing at least 5 percent of their body weight, but it remains to be seen how much more effective Contrave will be than Wellbutrin SR alone.