Weight gain has long been a common side effect of antidepressants, but some of them are more likely to add pounds than others, according to a new stud

New Study Shows Which Antidepressants May Cause the Most Weight Gain

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2024-07-10 13:30:14

Weight gain has long been a common side effect of antidepressants, but some of them are more likely to add pounds than others, according to a new study.

The study, published on Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzed the electronic health records of more than 183,000 U.S. patients who were considered first-time antidepressant users and tracked their weight for 24 months.

After six months, patients who took Lexapro, Paxil or Cymbalta had a higher risk, 10 to 15 percent, of gaining a clinically significant amount of weight, defined as at least 5 percent of their baseline weight, compared with users of Zoloft. Those taking Wellbutrin were less likely to experience this type of weight gain. The study included both the brand name and generic forms of each medication.

“A lot of patients are concerned about gaining excess weight when they’re taking an antidepressant,” said Joshua Petimar, who is an assistant professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, and the lead author of the study. That may be especially true of patients with a pre-existing health condition like diabetes.