Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-l4t7p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-17T04:14:06.170Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Amitriptyline, Weight Gain and Carbohydrate Craving: A Side Effect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

E. S. Paykel ,
P. S. Mueller  and
P. M. De la Vergne
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)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 123 , Issue 576 , November 1973 , pp. 501 - 507
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1973 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Arenillas, L. (1964). ‘Amitriptylinc and body weight.’ Lancet, i, 432–3.Google Scholar
Benady, D. R. (1970). ‘Cyproheptadine hydrochloride (periactin) and anorexia nervosa: a case report.’ British Journal of Psychiatry, 117, 681–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bergen, S. S. (1964). ‘Appetite-stimulating properties of cyproheptadine.’ American Journal of Diseases of Children, 108, 270.Google ScholarPubMed
Boden, G., and Soeldner, J. S. (1967). ‘A sensitive double antibody radioimmuno-assay for human growth hormone (HGH): Levels of serum HGH following rapid tolbutamide infusion.’ Diabetologia, 3, 413–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, A. J., and Ashcroft, G. (1966). ‘Potentiation of insulin hypoglycaemia by M.A.O.I, antidepressant drugs.’ Lancet, i, 407–9.Google Scholar
Crammer, J. L., and Elkes, A. (1968). ‘Body weight in depression and the effect of desmethyl-imipramine’, in The Present Status of Psychiatric Drugs. Proceedings of the 6th International Congress of the Collegium Internationale Neuropsychopharmacologicum, Tarragons, Spain, pp. 503–5.Google Scholar
Dally, P. (1967). Chemotherapy of Psychiatric Disorders. London: Logos Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Drash, A., Elliot, J., Langs, H., Lavenstein, A. F., and Cooke, R. E. (1966). ‘The effect of cyproheptadine on carbohydrate matabolism.’ Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, 7, 340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fales, F. W., Russell, J. A., and Fain, J. N. (1961). ‘Some applications and limitations of the enzymic, reducing (somogyi) and anthrone methods for estimating sugars.’ Clinical Chemistry, 7, 389–403.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frohman, L. A., Bernadis, L. L., and Kant, H.J. (1968). ‘Hypothalamic stimulation of growth hormone secretion.’ Science, 162, 580–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodman, L. S., and Gilman, A. (1970). The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. Fourth edition. London: Macmillian Google Scholar
Grossman, M. I. (1955). ‘Integration of current views on the regulation of hunger and appetite.’ Annals of the New York Academy of Science, 63, 76–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hamilton, M. (1960). ‘A rating scale for depresion.’ Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 23, 56–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klerman, G. L., and Cole, J. O. (1965). ‘Clinical pharmacology of imipramine and related antidepressant compounds.’ Pharmacological Reviews, 17, 101–41.Google ScholarPubMed
Kline, N. S. (1969). Depression: Its Diagnosis and Treatment (Modern Problems of Pharmacopsychiatry, Volume P3.) Basel: S. Karger Google Scholar
Mindham, R.H.S., Howland, C, Shepherd, M. (1973). An evaluation of continuation therapy with tricyclic antidepressants in depressive illness, Psychological Medicine, 3, 5–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mueller, P. S., and Watkin, D. M. (1961). ‘Plasma unesterified fatty acid (UFA) concentrations in neoplastic disease.’ Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, 57, 95–108.Google Scholar
Mueller, P. S., Heninger, G. R., and McDonald, R. K. (1969). ‘Intravenous glucose tolerance test in depression.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 21, 470–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mueller, P. S., Heninger, G. R., and McDonald, R. K. (1972). ‘Studies on glucose utilization and insulin sensitivity in affective disorders,’ in Recent Advances in the Psychobiology of Affective Disorders (eds. Williams, J., Katz, M., and Shields, J.). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E., and Gorham, D. R. (1962). ‘The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale.’ Psychological Reports, 10, 799–812.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Klerman, G. L., DiMascio, A., Wessman, M. M., and Prusoff, B. A. (1973). ‘Maintenance antidepressants, psychotherapy, symptoms and social function’, in Psychopathology and Psychopharmacology (eds. Cole, J. O., Friedhoff, A., and Freedman, A.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press. In press.Google Scholar
Raskin, A., Schulterbrandt, J. G., Reatig, N., and McKeon, J. J. (1970). ‘Differential response to chlorpromazine, imipramine and placebo. A study of subgroups of hospitalized depressed patients.’ Archives of General Psychiatry, 23, 164–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schalch, D. S. (1967). ‘The influence of physical stress and exercise on growth hormone and insulin secretion in man.’ Journal of Laboratory and Clinical Medicine, 69, 256–269.Google ScholarPubMed
Shader, R. I., and DiMascio, A. (1967). Psychotropic Drug Side Effects. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.Google Scholar
Soeldner, J. S., and Slone, D. (1965). ‘Critical variables in the radioimmunoassay of serum insulin using the double antibody technique.’ Diabetes, 14, 771–779.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

This journal is not currently accepting new eletters.

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.