Just curious..
2006-11-29 13:30:01 · 5 answers · asked by Green1808 2 in Health ➔ Mental Health
Whenever I've been on SSRIs including Lexapro, I've gained 5-10 lbs in the first month of taking it and the gain stops after that, but the extra weight doesn't go away on its own. I've found the weight gain difficult to get rid of while on the medicine (perhaps because I was taking it for eating disorder and that complicated it), but the medicine itself is great. Especially Lexapro (!!).
If it works for you, I'd say its definitely worth seeing a nutritionist or working out an extra day a week. There are very few psychiatric medications that don't have weight gain as a mild to moderate side effect (Wellbutrin is an exception), so you might as well stick with the good one.
Addition: Lexapro is not a tryciclic.
Above poster means serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. There's less lit on SNRI efficacy but they appear to be better tolerated and sometimes have fewer side effects (and are better suited to people who have physical symptoms of depression/neuropathic pain). Otherwise, I say SSRIs are where its at in my experience. No reason fix what's not broken, but they do tend towards a bit of weight gain and bad withdrawal effects.
2006-11-29 13:45:25 · answer #1 · answered by urbangenie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not me, not at all. My sister didn't either (and she tends to be extremely concerned about that happening).
None of the psych meds have done that to me though, which I am very thankful for because it is a rather common side effect for a lot of them.
It's different for different people, as you can see by the answers on here. My point is, it is not a given that you will gain weight by going on Lexapro.
2006-11-29 16:25:41 · answer #2 · answered by Jess 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I started to within a month of taking it (this was a few years ago) and then I started exercising too much and hardly eating anything if it wasn't like lettuce or something so I stopped gaining weight and began to lose.
2006-11-29 13:35:19 · answer #3 · answered by *babydoll* 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
lexapro made me gain weight plus cut off my sex drive but it did its job at making me less stress but i still changed to another medication
2006-11-29 13:33:23 · answer #4 · answered by sevenandahalf7 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My GOD yes!!! Of course I can only speak from my personal experiences, but any tricyclic antidepressant means open season on pounds galore (and I don't mean just 5 or 10 or 15lbs either...) My sugestion to you (with your dr's permission) maybe try a norepinepherine reuptake inhibitor like Effexor or Cymbalta.
I feel for you sweetie. Good Luck
2006-11-29 13:39:19 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋