ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews extant published studies describing weight gain associated with three of the most commonly prescribed classes of psychotropic medications: conventional unimodal antidepressants, mood stabilizers/ antiepileptic drugs, and antipsychotics. The etiology of overweight and obesity is multifactorial and includes many factors that are potentially modifiable with behavioral and preventative treatment strategies. The possibility of treatment-associated weight gain was a powerful detractor to treatment, accounting for more than half of the occasions in which insulin was deliberately omitted. Antidepressant-associated weight gain is described with both acute and long-term treatment. Amantadine is indicated for the prevention and treatment of influenza and improves symptoms of Parkinson’s disease likely through enhancing dopamine neurotransmission. In the interim, research attempting to parse out neurobiological mechanism which portend weight gain is under way, as are rigorously awaited psychosocial, behavioral, and pharmacological primary and preventative treatment approaches.
