Effectiveness of a Community-Based Weight Management Program for Patients Taking Antidepressants and/or Antipsychotics

Objective This study aimed to compare weight loss (WL) outcomes for patients taking antidepressants and/or antipsychotics with those not taking psychiatric medication. Methods A total of 17,519 adults enrolled in a lifestyle WL intervention at the Wharton Medical Clinics in Ontario, Canada, were analyzed. Sex-stratified multivariable linear regression analysis was used to examine the association of taking antidepressants, antipsychotics, both, or neither with WL when adjusting for age, initial weight, and treatment time. Results Twenty-three percent of patients were taking at least one psychiatric medication. Patients lost a significant amount of weight (P 0.05). Conversely, men taking antidepressants lost only slightly less weight than men taking both classes or neither class of psychiatric medication (3.2 ± 0.3 kg vs. 5.6 ± 0.9 kg and 4.3 ± 0.1 kg; P 0.05). Conclusions Results of this study suggest that those who participate in a weight management program can lose significant amounts of weight regardless of psychiatric medication use.