I took Zyprexa once to come down from mania. It worked so well, I decided to keep taking it. I gained something like 10-20 lbs in 1-2 months, without exercising, and on my next visit my then doctor looked at my rounder face and said - "So I see it. We will discontinue it. Shame, many of my other patients take it without weight gain". But personally including on this board I have not heard a happy report from anyone taking it without weight gain. So I conclude that it is a wonderful PRN drug but not a maintenance drug, especially with the record of causing diabetes. Being bipolar and being diabetic are bad enough separately, having both must be a true horror.

Later on I had a p-doc who was so concerned about my weight (I was 40 lbs overweight, 20 from Zyprexa and 20 from sedentary lifestyle and overeating - I started taking care of myself recently and lost 5 of it already) that he questioned the pharmacist's advice to take my night dose of Lithium with a light snack or a glass of milk. He did not want me to take in these unnecessary calories, and told me that his other patients are fine taking Lithium just with water - and that is what I do now.

I cannot afford him anymore and today had an intake with a new p-doc through the county system. When I mentioned Zyprexa and weight gain in the past, she acknowledged that the drug can have this side effect, asked me for my weight and height and did a MENTAL calculation of how much I was overweight. She was off by 10 lbs but still - make the effort at this non-trivial math?! She clearly took weight seriously.

With recent experiences like these, I am enraged like hell when I read about doctors who shrug off this vital issue.