SBE - Sorry that I am so late in replying to your question. Zyprexa (olanzapine) causes varying amounts of weight gain in most people who take it. I believe that the average amount of weight gain in the first of taking the drug is in the range of 15 to 25lbs. After approximately a year on this medication most people weight does stabilize.

It has been my experience that the amount of weight gain seems to correlate with drug's effectiveness. I can't prove this but more often than not those who have an initial rapid weight gain with Zyprexa seem to benefit the most from it's mood modifying effects.

Not much consolation, huh.

Seroquel (quetiapine) is quite sedating, but so is Zyprexa. I think that you just started at too high of a dose. Because these new mood modifiers are lumped into a group called atypical antipsychotics (I find "mood modifiers" to be a more accurate term for these meds) they do not always act the same in some people's bodies. Pdocs quite often switch a person from one atypical to another without first reducing the dose of the first while titrating upward the dose of the second. When this is done I find that quite a few of the secondary side effects of the new med are quite pronounced for the first week or so.

I like the titration method (decreasing the dose of the first, while increasing the dose of the second at the same time), but many times this is not practical, nor is it cost effective. The incidents of side effects like the one's you experienced are minimized, but sometimes you see a loss of effectiveness of the drugs while doing this (ie. the person being titrated experiences a psychotic break/manic attack/reappearance of the dissociative symptoms).

Anyway, yes there are other medications that are similar to these two. The problem is is that the medications that work the best are also those with the most side effects (eg. Zyprexa and Clozaril [clozapine]). These side effects most commonly being weight gain and drowsiness (which does become reduced as your body adjusts to the drug).

There is really nothing to prevent or stop the gain in weight; it is just a fact of the medication. Seroquel does have a much lower incidence of weight gain, and the side effects that you describe should have abated by now, as your body should have adjusted to the drug (if you are still taking it).

I hope that this is of some help. - Cam