Does zyprexa cure anorexia?

Is it possible for a medication to cure anorexia?

Anorexic thoughts and anorexic behavior are different things. Anorexic thoughts are very hard to battle and they do not go away with medication.

Simply put: NO! There are no meds that effect that behaviors of anorexic people. There are some meds for bulimics but not anorexics.

then how was I cured with zyprexa?

I think you're talking through personal experience and you're wrong. There is no magic cure but there are medications that might regulate anorexic behavior. Although therapy is usually what is recommended and the first line treatment.

I know meds that take away appetite can trigger anorexia so I'm sure that taking meds that trigger appetite could help...but they won't cure the behavior. For me, stress is another trigger for anorexia. I went through a trauma & lost so much weight not eating or drinking I ended up in the medical hospital with the anorexia. I had such bad nightmares I couldn't sleep. Pdoc put me on Seroquel high dose to knock me out. That med usually makes people gain weight. It was 2 years before I could get my body weight up to the safe norm for my body. Even now I tend to restrict if the weight goes up a little..afraid of gaining too much. I have always had that restriction behavior I throw in to keep my weight controlled except for a few years when I gained too much right before the last trauma....never again will I let that happen so the anorexia restriction is just part of my eating habits though I won't let my weight go too low or too high now. Meds can trigger behavior in either direction but can't truly control behavior. That has to be changed through thought control over behavior....DBT calls it reprogramming the neurotransmitters or the thought processes /pathways in the brain like stroke or TBI victims learning how to function again.

Like I said, nothing cures anorexia and if you think it did, you didn't have anorexia.

No medication can specifically treat ANY eating disorder. You must get to the root of the problems that accompany them. For some, it's depression, bipolar, a personality disorder. Whatever it is, you can treat the disorder and learn to manage your symptoms through medication and therapy. I don't think there is a cure for eating disorders. You need to learn ways of coping and you need to realize love is as vital to your well being as eating is. Some people struggle with it after years of being in recovery--making their whole life a journey to recovery. Some claim to be recovered. It's different for everyone.

Paradox.
There are no absolutes. Maybe you were cured by zyprexa. Thats possible.
Everyone is different. If it's worked for you that's great!
I mean if your anorexia was caused by depression and the meds helped that, it means they worked.


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If zyprexa stimulated your appetite & slowed down your metabolism then it could cure the physical aspects of the anorexia. If its truly a thought process on needing to be thin & doing whatever you need to get there...no medication changes that thought process. It takes therapy.

The last time I was in the hospital the dx was anorexia....but my MD said that even cancer patients that fit the definition of the low weight are dx Ed with anorexia....that is different than anorexia nervousa even though medically treated the same....with meds to increase the appetite & usually IV nutrition or feeding tube.

The desire to be thin at all costs can't be fixed with a med....only the symptoms & they hold the hope that a change in thought process will follow. Without good therapy or a good reason the person has for changing their thinking it usually doesn't happen

I had a distant friend who had anorexia/bulimia and she was put on Zyprexa. It was before the Internet so research was hard and they lied to her and said it will not increase her appetite.

She was terrified. She told me her bulimia had really gotten out of hands. She could still fight it but even if she had gotten rid of all junk food she had ideas of eating just flour, and she had never had that kind of craving before.

I pulled out my big med book and looked up her med, it said it causes increased appetite. She told that to our counsellor who got really mad at me for giving that piece of info. The girl was supposed to not know.

They had thought she would be cured just if she started feeling hungry. So they made her crazily hungry. It did not cure her. It made her feel like she had TOTALLY LOST GRIP OF HER ILLNESS.

I was prevented to ever speaking with her again as they tried to convince her I had lied and the med does not cause anything like that. I don't know whatever happened after that.

Cured... I think not.

But if it enouraged or made her a able to eat isn't that good?
It might not be a cure, but then insulin isn't a cure for diabetes but it saves lives.

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It can "encourage" anorexics to turn into bulimics. I don't think that insatiable hunger is good for anyone. It just adds more "drama" to the illness, but then again people are starting to consider LSD for depression so what do I know?

Don't think it would cause 'insatiable' hunger.
If depression was the cause and zypera eased it l do think that would be good and not cause bulimia.

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It could also cause an increase of starving ones self even more. If a person mentally wants to keep getting thinner because they see the self as fat no matter how thin they are. There isn't a med in the world that will cure that cause for anorexia & it won't even stop the symptoms because with anorexia we shut off the feeling of hungar & most times the stomach doesn't even growl any longer.

However this brings up a very important point about anorexia that mant treatment providers don't understand. There are many reasons for anorexia. Body image being only one in a number of many. Body image issues aren't solved with meds. Depression or anxiety triggered anorexia on the other hand it's more possible for meds to help....however when I was dealing with stressed triggered anorexia....loosing the weight was almost addictive. Also the trauma had been so bad I went through my pdoc gave me Seroquel to sleep because of the nightmares. Seroquel is known for weight issues....it never fazed the anorexia which I dealt with for several years that time. I still restrict to keep my weight under control though at a safe weight now...I want it to stay there & not go high like the first time with anorexia. Too hard for me living alone to get on a normal eating schedule or food & oral surgery with no teeth now makes eating a chore not a pleasure

This girl I sort of knew was pushed further into anorexia because of Zyprexa. Because it made her feel more out of control she tried even harder to gain more control.

I don't have an eating disorder but I took a med a while that caused that kind of hunger. It was devastating. I felt like I hadn't eaten in weeks. It really freaked me out. I don't cry easily but I cried daily because I was so dang hungry! Imagine I had had a fear of eating, wow, so hard!

So true jimi.....most times the underlying issue of anorexia is control. When we can't control anything else in life we CAN CONTROL what we eat even when we feel hungry....it's more success in controlling not eating when there is that hungry feel.

There are so many reasons for why someone becomes anorexic...as many reasons as there are people who have it. That is why it's so hard to treat especially when those of us dealing with it don't fit into the box treatment providers have defined we should. If something worked for one like zyprexa then it fit their needs & their reasons for having anorexia...but not something that would be standard treatment for it

Antipsychotics increase appetite. Maybe that is what you mean by being "cured" of your involuntary weight loss. But anorexia involves a voluntary weight loss accompained by an intense desire of loosing weight. If you think you have been cured by a medication that increased your apetite, maybe you should reconsider your self diagnose.

Best of luck..

zyprexa and cyproheptadine are the only meds with on or off label uses for anorexia. Yes, it does cause an increase in appetite, which often decreases in the later stages of anorexia but it's also been shown to decrease the intrusive and obsessive thoughts surrounding food and weight. Try googling journal, academic articles for more info. There's a lot out there.

I only know what my pdoc told me. (He knows my ED history and I have to do weigh ins but i see him for bipolar and other MI. Not my ED.)

Since Zyprexa is an antipsychotic med and often prescribed to people with bipolar disorder - I asked about Zyprexa because we were changing my antipsychotic.

My pdoc will not prescribe Zyprexa to ANY of his patients. None. And he gives me Adderall and benzos. He's a good doc.

He won't prescribe Zyprexa because it a massive weight gainer. I don't see that as a cure for anorexia. It sounds like abuse but that's my opinion.

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zyprexa (olanzapine) slows down the metabolism. Short answer.

It increases appetite but SLOWS down METABOLIC RATE.

It is a band aid and not a cure. I think its use in Anorexia Nervosa is disgraceful.

for me..no it was like hell eating..binge eating.. and than you feel okay than extreme guilty. not nice.