Bipolar Disorder And Weight Gain
It's a Catch-22, no doubt about it.
Medications used to successfully manage bipolar disorder can cause another problem: weight gain. At times, this weight gain can be so large that it has the potential to trigger other health problems, diabetes and heart disease to name just two.
In some instances, individuals who take prescription medications for bipolar disorder have gained as much as 60 pounds. Among those bipolar disorder medications that cause the most weight gain are Zyprexa, Depakote and lithium. While not every individual with bipolar disorder gains weight when she takes them, many individuals do.
The farther that medical experts dig into this problem with bipolar disorder medications, they discover that more drugs than ever suspected cause at least some weight gain. According to the web site www.psycheducation.com explains that certain antidepressants that were not associated with this problem now appear also to cause a gain in weight for many.
In a recent study, researchers observed that those with bipolar disorder who had switched from one medication to Zydis actually lost an average of 14.5 pounds. The reason is not that Zydis actually promotes weight loss. Rather, these individuals lost weight because they were no longer taking the drugs which did promote weight gain.
Zydis, however, has one disadvantage: it costs approximately 15 percent more than other medications for bipolar disorder. In fact, on average, Zydis costs about a dollar a day more.
Zydis is successful at not promoting weight gain for individuals with bipolar disorder because it is taken in a wafer form. The Zydis wafer melts in your mouth. At this point the individual who has bipolar disorder does not swallow the remnants, but allows the medication to be absorbed through the cell membranes of their mouth.
In this way, the Zydis wafer is not routed through the stomach of the person with bipolar disorder. That means that the serotonin receptors are not stimulated. These receptors are believed by medical experts to be responsible for stimulating the appetite.
This is the theory at least. There are also several other theories about why bipolar disorder medications cause weight gain and how can it can be avoided. Another theory about the weight gain from medications to manage bipolar disorder is that the histamine receptor of the body - the same receptor that is more familiar to us in t he treatment of allergies - may play a role.
Whatever the mechanisms involved in the weight gain stimulated by the use of bipolar medications, it seems clear that an individual with bipolar disorder should at least be aware of the possibility of gaining between two to even as much as 60 pounds.
It would be wise to discuss this possibility with the doctor who is treating you for bipolar disorder. Don't be afraid to ask him about this and perhaps even prepare a plan of attack to minimize the weight gain.
