New Epidemiological Evidence Suggsts SSRI Use but Not Depression Causes Obesity

Page Changed: You Did Not Eat Your Way To Diabetes

Added citation to ten year Canadian epidemiological study liking the use of SSRI and Effexor but NOT Major Depressive Episode (i.e. evidence of clinical depression) to increased rates of obesity.

The study found that, "MDE [Major Depressive Episode] does not appear to increase the risk of obesity. ...Pharmacologic treatment with antidepressants may be associated with an increased risk of obesity. [emphasis mine]. The study concludesed,

Unexpectedly, significant effects were seen for serotonin-reuptake-inhibiting antidepressants [Prozac,Celexa, Lovox, Paxil, Zoloft] and venlafaxine [Effexor], but neither for tricyclic antidepressants nor antipsychotic medications.

Scott B. Patten et al. Psychother Psychosom 2009;78:182-186 (DOI: 10.1159/000209349)

This is not the first time the often prescribed antidepressants have been linked to pathological weight gain. But the media have bought into drug company spin that claimed that the underlying depression that required the drug use was what caused obesity.

This new data appears to disprove that claim.

Given the current high prescription level of SSRIs this is very likely a major cause of the so-called "obesity epidemic."

Don't expect the media to pick up on this fact, though, as they earn so much from drug company advertising. They'll continue to blame the victims for gluttony and sloth.