[MusicLover82]

Does anyone have experience with taking weight-loss meds, like Contrave? Do they affect your mood or interact with meds? I'm just thinking I might need to talk to my doc about some medication changes due to my insatiable appetite for a week or two out of every month.

Thanks in advance for any info you can share.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

[99fairies]

The problem with bipolar people taking diet pills is that most of them are stimulants. Which can make you manic or mixed. I don't recommend it.

Ask about metformin

Please don't take any type of diet pill without talking to your psych medication prescriber. If weight gain on your current mix is a serious concern, that's a necessary talking point with her/him.

It's curious why you only have appetite issues for part of a month. If you are a female, I'd wonder if it is related to hormone changes/PMS. Stuff changes as you get older, and that includes going from mid teens to 20s, not just 30s and older. These issues are a concern for many women, including those who take zero meds.

[Wonderfalls]

Metformin is a drug used to treat metabolic syndrome/pre-diabetes. Sometimes psychiatrists prescribe it with a drug known to cause weight gain and sometimes they'll add it to help patients lose weight. A lot of psychiatrists won't use it at all since it's not indicated for that. Studies have shown that it works best with a regimen of regular exercise and sensible diet. Of course so does everything.

Contrave is part Wellbutrin and part a drug called naltrexone. Wellbutrin, you probably know, is an antidepressant. It does lower your appetite and you can lose some weight, but that effect seems to go away pretty fast

Naltrexone is prescribed to help opiate addicts recover. It's an opiate antagonist so if you do go back to using drugs you don't get a high and that should curb your habit.It also seems to help with alcoholism. Some users say it takes away their appetite.

Contrave is supposed to be synergistic so that the drugs work better together than each would individually.

I don't think either Contrave or Metformin are stimulants.

[Northchild]

Metformin helped me lose about 130 pounds. It was a part of a three-tier approach that also included a very high protein/ very low carb/very low added sugar diet, and gym visits 4 to 5 days a week.

[MusicLover82]

Originally Posted by BirdDancer

Please don't take any type of diet pill without talking to your psych medication prescriber. If weight gain on your current mix is a serious concern, that's a necessary talking point with her/him.


It's curious why you only have appetite issues for part of a month. If you are a female, I'd wonder if it is related to hormone changes/PMS. Stuff changes as you get older, and that includes going from mid teens to 20s, not just 30s and older. These issues are a concern for many women, including those who take zero meds.

I was going to talk to my psychiatrist about these meds. I wouldn’t dare take anything without his blessing.

And yes, I’m female and it is hormone related. I would love for my insatiable appetite to get under control.

[boogiesmash]

I take contrave and it has helped. I still get hungry and some CRavings but take a few bites and get turned off from finishing the rest (usually, didn’t stop me from my moms roast pork last night lol). I’ve lost 12 lbs in past 6 weeks.

Originally Posted by MusicLover82

I was going to talk to my psychiatrist about these meds. I wouldn’t dare take anything without his blessing.

And yes, I’m female and it is hormone related. I would love for my insatiable appetite to get under control.

If you believe your appetite issues are hormone related, you might want to also discuss this issue with your gynecologist. I don't know if you are on birth control or not, but perhaps that might be a factor to consider. Note that even some birth control meds can be triggers for mood issues, while others not as much. I can say that my gynecologist seems to have a pretty good idea of which choices were best in that regard. Nowadays there are some BC options that are good (or bad) for various things, over others.

If your appetite is influenced by bipolar medications, there are ways that your psychiatrist can work with you. They can either change medications or adjust doses, but if your current mix works, it would be a shame to make changes if your appetite issues have nothing really to do with the bipolar meds.

I know people out there have taken metformin for weight loss (even without diabetes), but once when I asked my psychiatrist about it, he literally yelled "NOOOOO!" Medication changes and dieting eventually solved the weight problems I had. Obviously some people have no problems with metformin, but my sister (who has type 2 diabetes) experienced some pretty nasty side effects from it, plus it is not such a wonder weight loss drug for everyone. It wasn't for my sister.

[99fairies]

I was on metformin for over a year because my meds made be balloon up. I eventually just went off it because it did nothing for me. Same with topamax. I ended up gaining 60 pounds but I've recently lost 40 pounds of that just through diet and med changes.