Depression Medications that do not Cause Weight Gain

Talk about depression medication and among the first few things that come to your mind is weight gain. But one wonders whether there are depression medications that do not cause weight gain. The answer to this will be discussed in the following article.

Julia, 22, was sitting in a psychiatrist's room. She was in a state of acute depression, the poor girl was totally shattered. The reason being the break up of her relationship which was eventually going to end up in marriage. The guy she loved had ditched her at the last moment. The reason was never told to her. The doctor took a stock of her condition, gauging how serious it is, and prescribed her some antidepressants.

Anti depressants refer to a class of drugs which help in reducing the symptoms of depression. However, there are a few depression medications that do not cause weight gain. Basically, what type of depression medications or antidepressants are prescribed and consumed determines if it would result in weight gain. So, before we get onto depression medications and weight loss, a bit about types of antidepressants.

Types of Depression Medications

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors: Called as SSRI's in short, this category of antidepressants function by increasing existing levels of neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain.

Tricyclic Depressants: If the SSRI's fail, this class of depression medication is the next course of action. These are ill-famed for causing a serious weight gain. Therefore, this is a complete dampener when you want to combine depression medications and weight loss.

Atypical Depressants: These are the ones which fit the bill when you mention about depression medications that do not cause weight gain. Although the connection is not yet clear, these type of antidepressants are believed to cause weight loss. For more on various anti depressants, check list of antidepressants.

Now, after taking a look at the types of antidepressants, we move on to depressants leading to weight loss. So here is more on that.

Antidepressants Not Causing Weight Gain

First of all, we need to establish a relationship between antidepressants and weight gain. To say the least, there is a concrete evidence that the majority of depression medications do cause weight gain. Although SSRI's supposedly cause weight loss, with regards to SSRI's and weight loss, there are contradictory views. One of the argument says that when there is atypical depression, resulting in overeating and excessive sleeping and it is treated by SSRI's, it causes weight loss. This weight loss is a result of uniform levels of serotonin. On the flip side, the link between selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and weight gain cannot be ignored. If an individual has been taking such medicines for 6 months or more, weight gain has been experienced. But hey, that does not mean that there are no depression medications that do not cause weight gain.Read more on antidepressants and weight loss.

All said and done, SSRI's that do not lead to weight gain are Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox, Escitalopram and Citalopram. Wellbutrin, amongst others is a depression medication that does not have any impact on weight. In addition to that, Effexor, Cymbalta, Serzone and Desyrel also fall in the category of depression medications resulting neither in weight loss nor weight gain. As mentioned earlier, amongst depression medication side effects and one of them is weight gain. One of the SSRI's Prozac, leads to weight loss precisely as a result of its side effects which are nausea, loss of appetite and diarrhea. In case on Wellbutrin, weight loss is believed to come about as a result of its impact on Dopamine. Dopamine controls motivation, energy and appetite, so when that is affected, it obviously leads to plummeting levels of appetite in tandem with nausea and vomiting. All this in turn leads to weight loss. For more on antidepressants and weight gain, take a look at antidepressants that do not cause weight gain.

Thus, in conclusion, one cannot deny the connection between depression medications and weight loss. But, it is also a fact that there are depression medications that do not cause weight gain. Even after all this, in my opinion, no issue in this world is so huge and shocking that can throw you into the black hole of depression for a life time. Moreover, it cannot be so powerful as to make you resort to depression medications. Of course, we all go through traumas and major ones at that, but, we have to come out trumps from it. Because, as they say, tough times do not last, tough people do!