If you are depressed, you may choose to use an antidepressant to manage your symptoms, but these medications are not without their side effects. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality notes that more than 60 percent of patients using a depression medicine experience at least one side effect. One possible side effect is weight loss, which varies depending on the antidepressant used.
Types
Several types of antidepressants may have weight loss as a side effect. For example, serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, or SNRIs, may cause weight loss. Examples include duloxetine and venlafaxine. Other types of antidepressants may also result in weight loss. Bupropion, a norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor, or NDRI, may cause you to lose weight. eMedTV lists fluoxetine and sertraline, two types of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, as other antidepressants that cause weight loss.
Significance
The amount of weight loss caused depends on the specific depression medicine. eMedTV notes that 28 percent of bupropion users lose more than 5 lbs. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality adds that compared with a placebo, bupropion caused depression patients to lose about 2.5 lbs. If you use fluoxetine, you may may lose only a small amount of weight. eMedTV adds that 7 percent of children and around 2 percent of adolescents who use sertraline lost more than 7 percent of their body weight.
Factors
You may experience weight loss due to a number of factors. For example, the weight loss may result from the symptoms of depression. MedlinePlus points out that depression can lead to a significant change in appetite, which may result in weight loss. Other side effects of the antidepressants may cause the weight loss. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality explains that patients taking venlafaxine have a 10 percent higher chance of experiencing nausea and vomiting than patients taking a SSRI, and sertraline users have a 8 percent higher likelihood of experiencing diarrhea than users of bupropion, fluoxetine and other types of antidepressants.
Combination Treatments
Weight loss with an antidepressant may occur if you take that medication with another type of medication. The University of Maryland Medical Center explains that phentermine, a type of psychostimulant, may treat obesity by suppressing appetite; however, this medication may cause depressive symptoms in some users. As a result, patients taking phentermine may also take fluoxetine.
Considerations
If the weight loss from the antidepressant is significant, you may need to talk to your doctor. eMedTV notes that your doctor may switch you to another medication or change the dosage of the antidepressant. Your doctor may also suggest dietary changes to help with the weight loss. For some, the weight loss may only be temporary.
While certain antidepressants, such as SNRIs and NDRIs, cause weight loss, other antidepressants may cause weight gain. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality notes that if you are worried about weight gain, you should avoid paroxetine, a SSRI, and mirtazapine, a tetracyclic antidepressant. Paroxetine causes more than a 7 percent weight gain in about 25 percent of users and mirtazapine causes a weight gain of 2 to 7 lbs. during six to eight weeks of use.
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