Zyprexa, Seroquel, and weight EXPLOSION

My pdoc hospitalized me for a couple of days in mid Dec. and put me on Zyprexa 10 mg for dissociation. I began to put on weight immediately, although my eating habits hadn't changed. The weight gain was so bad that I had to buy some new clothes and was afraid to get on the scales. I developed a constant lower back pain, which I finally realized was caused by my huge stomach. I couldn't wear any shoes other than my sneakers, and I couldn't stand up for very long because of the back pain and swelling in my legs and feet. When I went for my next visit with him on the 28th, I complained about the weight gain. He gave me a prescription for Seroquel 200 mg and told me to take that instead of the Zyprexa. WOW! That stuff packs a wallop! I slept almost constantly from the 28th through New Year's Day. When I was awake, my back pain was constant, the area around my ribs was very sore on both sides, I had developed numbness in both thighs, my fingers and toes, and I was gaining weight even more rapidly. My family (who had been away from home) became alarmed when they saw me and when they noticed that my speech was slurred.

My husband called the Mayo Clinic on Sunday night, and the RN told him that I needed to either go to the emergency room that night or see my regular physician the first thing Monday morning. (I opted out of the ER.)
When they weighed me at the Dr.'s office on Monday, I had gained 33 pounds from Dec. 11th through Jan 5th! My blood pressure was also up by 20 pts. on the bottom number. My Dr. ordered emergency CT scans of my head, abdomen and pelvis and an executive 3 blood panel. He took me off of the Seroquel and gave me a diuretic (Furosemide 20 mg). He also told me to stop taking my estrogen.
I'm supposed to go back to my physician tomorrow to find out the results of the tests.

How common is it for someone to have such a drastic weight gain on these meds? Are there other substitutes that don't cause weight gain?

sbe,

Does my heart ever feel for you...I'm in the process of losing the last 5lbs of the 55 I gained when I started taking Zyprexa. It's such a good med, if they'd just warn you about the weight gain...If you take the Zyprexa again, taking Topamax with it helps a little on the weight gain. Topamax is an anti-seisure med, but a lot of doctors use it as a mood stabilizer.

I've had a few friends tell me that they've had great success with Geodon, and it doesn't carry any weight gain side effects with it. You might try asking your doc?

I wish you the best of luck, and no more problems! Hopefully Cam will have some input on this too, being the resident genius and all .

bp

"When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance."

The first month I took Zyprexa, I gained 20 pounds. Talk about a bummer! I didn't eat more, or different stuff (always been a healthy eater). I wish I had been warned about the weight gain. I hate how fat and flabby I feel. I'm doing the national body challenge (the discovery channel thingie) starting this weekend and I hope that helps. I swear I gained that weight SO fast too! It's like I started taking it and two days later I woke up and none of my clothes fit.

Cam, are there any medications that you know of that work as a mood stabilizer (I take it for mania) but don't have as bad of an effect on weight?

some of it's magic
some of it's tragic
but i had a good life all the way......
~jimmy buffett

Pardon my ignorance, but medication for DISSOCIATION??? What about dissociation scares a doctor that he feels he needs to medicate for it?

I'm not acquainted with zyprexa... but any medication that makes me feel that way falls under the heading of ALLERGIC REACTION, as per my allergist/specialist ENT. There are so many different meds out there, and very few work for a majority of people! Even the drug manufacturers will tell you that: their meds work for only a very small percentage of people!

Keep trying. I always weigh when trying a new med 3lbs in 2 weeks is MY max. tolerance because weight gain causes me too many other problems.

Please research anything I suggest before believing...

Thanks, bptoo. I hope that my pdoc will not insist that I continue taking this stuff. He was reluctant to put me on it, but was disturbed by my lack of progress (actually digression) over the past few months. When I dissociate I usually cut, and I guess he thought he had to try this.

I haven't told him yet that I've stopped taking it. I think he'll be o.k. with it though, since it had a bad effect on my health. Maybe he'll agree to change the prescription to something else.

Hi SBD. The thing about the dissociation that worries him is that I usually si when I am dissociating. I hate to say this, but I'd rather cut than go through this.

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

Thanks, Cam! I will see my pdoc this Friday, but in the meantime I've stopped taking these meds. I've lost half of the weight, but the other half is stubbornly hanging on.