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Amitriptyline, Weight Gain and Carbohydrate Craving: A Side Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. S. Paykel
Affiliation:
St. George's Hospital, London, S.W.17
P. S. Mueller
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey, U.S.A
P. M. De la Vergne
Affiliation:
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. (Dr. De la Vergne died in March 1972)

Extract

Increase in weight is a well-known side effect of phenothiazine drugs (Dally, 1967). There have been scattered reports of weight gain on tricyclic antidepressants (Arenillas, 1964; Dally, 1967; Kline, 1969), but this possibility has received little systematic study. Investigation is confounded by the fact that depression itself often produces weight loss. Crammer and Elkes (1968) reported weight gain in responders to desipramine, but regarded this as a limited phenomenon which never built up to obesity and was due to reversal of depression-induced weight loss.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

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