Researchers aren't certain what's behind the dramatic weight gain experienced by some patients taking antipsychotics, but the revved-up appetite that visited Katie and Michael is almost certainly partly to blame.
In a 2007 study involving mice, researchers at John Hopkins University and the University of Vermont found that Zyprexa and another antipsychotic, clozapine (Clozaril), quadrupled the levels of a brain enzyme that spurs appetite. And a study in humans published in the journal Obesity earlier this year found that men who took Zyprexa for just two weeks increased their food intake by 18 percent, on average.
Appetite may not be the whole story, however. Some patients on atypical antipsychotics don't feel hungrier yet still gain weight; in these cases, metabolic changes -- such as a rise in insulin resistance -- may be responsible, says Dr. James Phelps, M.D., a psychiatrist at Samaritan Health Services, in Corvallis, Oregon.
As with anyone who's overweight (or on their way there), people on antipsychotics who follow an intensive regimen of diet and exercise can slow and even reverse weight gain stemming from the drugs. But as some experts have pointed out, a program like that may be too much to ask from people who are depressed, mentally ill, or feeling sedated, a familiar side effect of antipsychotics.
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