Table of contents:
- Antidepressant drugs
- Drugmood stabilizer
- Diabetes specific drugs
- Corticosteroid drugs
- Migraine and seizure relievers
Are you surprised when you see that the number of the weight scales has increased much differently than before? If you are taking medication regularly, it could be that they are the main cause of your weight gain.
According to experts from Well Cornel Medical College, Louis Aronne MD, as much as 10-15% of people who are obese are caused by consumption of a drug. Various drugs that make you gain weight have their respective side effects, which indirectly increase your weight. Then what are the drugs that can make you fat? Can all drugs make you fat?
Antidepressant drugs
Various kinds of antidepressant drugs can make you gain weight. Some examples of these antidepressant drugs are:
- citalopram (Celexa)
- fluoxetine (Prozac)
- fluvoxamine (Luvox)
- mirtazapine (Remeron)
- paroxetine (Paxil)
- sertraline (Zoloft)
This antidepressant drug is relied on to reduce symptoms of depression by increasing the hormone serotonin in sufferers. The hormone serotonin itself is better known as the hormone of calm and happiness because it stimulates these feelings to arise. It is known from a journal Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine, the type of antidepressant drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) do increase a person's chances of gaining weight.
If you take the drugs that have been mentioned previously and experience excessive weight gain, get checked out immediately and discuss this with your doctor.
Drugmood stabilizer
Another type of drug that can make you fat is medicine moood stabilizer. This drug is given to people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and has a direct effect on your brain function and metabolism. Reporting from WebMD, medicine moood stabilizer able to increase appetite and can make you gain weight as much as 5 kg within 10 months of using the drug. Drug moood stabilizer which is on the market, namely:
- clozapine (Clozaril)
- lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid)
- olanzapine (Zyprexa)
- quetiapine (Seroquel)
- risperidone (Risperdal)
Diabetes specific drugs
Someone who has diabetes, must be given various special medicines so that their blood sugar levels are well controlled. Some examples of diabetes drugs that can make you fat, namely:
- glimepiride (Amaryl)
- glipizide (Glucotrol)
- glyburide (Diabeta, Micronase)
- insulin
- nateglinide (Starlix)
- pioglitazone (Actos)
- repaglinide (Prandin)
Each diabetes drug has its own way of working to control blood sugar levels to remain normal. some of these drugs make the patient more sensitive to insulin, while others cause an increase in insulin production in the body after meals.
In fact, it is normal for you to gain weight the first time you take these medicines. However, if you continue to gain weight, this can be caused by the diabetes medication you are taking.
Corticosteroid drugs
Corticosteroid drugs are used to relieve pain and inflammation that occurs in the body. This type of medication is available in various forms, such as creams that you can apply to inflamed areas of the skin, in the form of gases to be inhaled, or tablets and pills that can be swallowed by mouth. Examples of corticosteroid drugs that put you at risk of obesity include:
- methylprednisolone (Medrol)
- prednisolone (Orapred, Pediapred, Prelone, and others)
- prednisone (Deltasone, Prednicot, Sterapred, and others)
The use of these drugs can actually increase a person's appetite. Uncontrolled appetite results in significant weight gain and eventually obesity occurs. In addition, metabolism can be slower if you take corticosteroid drugs for a long time.
Migraine and seizure relievers
This type of drug can make you fat because it affects the hormones that control hunger and satiety in the body. Migraine and seizure relievers such as amitriptyline (Elavil), nortriptyline (Aventyl, Pamelor), valproic acid (Depacon, Depakote, Stavzor) can increase appetite and decrease metabolism. This has even been proven in a study conducted on epilepsy patients in 2007. The results of this study found that as many as 44% of women and 24% of men gained weight up to 5 kg due to the use of Depakote for one year.
