Furious Seasons

May 21, 2009

Seroquel Documents: AZ Hid Significant Seroquel Weight Gain From Doctors, Patients

I'm going to make this short and not so sweet: AstraZeneca knew just how big the weight gains were for patients taking Seroquel for ages and somehow justified to itself casting the fat-producing, blood sugar-boosting drug as weight neutral. You'll see just how crazy such drug marketing spin was in a second. I can assure you if I'd had even the slightest inkling that Seroquel was packing the pounds onto a significant proportion of patients taking the drug, then I would've never taken the drug in the first place in 2004. I would've told my psychiatrist "Hell, no," since part of the reason I was getting off Depakote at the time was due to weight gain (not so bad at the time but enough bad to get off it). I asked my doctor when he suggested Seroquel if it made people gain weight. He told me the research he'd seen suggested it didn't.

Oh, boy. I wish he knew then what he and I both know now.

In memo dated April 29, 2005 (and obviously dependent on data from prior years) from the recently released new batch of Seroquel documents and titled "Weight change over 52 and 104 weeks schizophrenia mono therapy," someone at AZ reports (see page 4) that 38.7 percent and 47.5 percent of patients taking the drug for 52 and 104 weeks, respectively, gained at least 7 percent of their body weight, a well understood diabetes risk factor. What's even more stunning is that 30.3 percent and 39.2 percent of patients taking the drug for 52 and 104 weeks, respectively, gained at least 10 percent of their body weight. That's just crazy.

Weight neutral, my ass. Literally.

Adding salt to the wounds, on page 8 of the memo the company claims the drug causes a "modest" amount of weight gain in patients taking the drug long term.

AZ knew for a long time that it was playing with fire in how it characterized its drug's safety profile. I cannot wait to see them defend this kind of BS in court--and we should have that opportunity sometime this summer.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at May 21, 2009 12:03 AM

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Comments

The weight gain on all psychiatric drugs, especially antipsychotics, is one of the factors fueling the rising rates of diabetes worldwide.

Also, especially at low doses, Seroquel can cause manic symptoms. Here is an article on "short-term low-dose Seroquel use" associated with manic symptoms. This is followed by an article [in part] from www.SSRIstories.com which states that antidepressants can cause weight loss in the short term but huge weight gains when used in the long term.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/4q749581k630qt70/

Manic symptoms probably associated with short-term low-dose quetiapine use
Journal Advances in Therapy
Publisher Springer Healthcare Communications
ISSN 0741-238X (Print) 1865-8652 (Online)
Issue Volume 25, Number 1 / January, 2008
DOI 10.1007/s12325-008-0003-4
Pages 53-58
Subject Collection Medicine
SpringerLink Date Friday, February 01, 2008

Manic symptoms probably associated with short-term low-dose quetiapine use

Nurper Erberk-Ozen1, 2
(1) Department of Psychiatry, Kirikkale University School of Medicine, Kirikkale, Turkey
(2) MAK-IS Gül Sitesi 67, sokak 3, ada no 18, Ümitküy-Çankaya, 06530 Ankara, Turkey

Published online: 17 January 2008
Abstract Nowadays, there is a widespread use of atypical (second-generation) antipsychotics as an adjunct pharmacotherapy in psychiatry clinics, especially at lower doses in several diagnoses. Here, 2 cases are reported where patients with diagnosed schizophrenia displayed manic symptoms on quetiapine 100 mg/d. The cases presented here had no history of mood disorders. It is discussed that the mania/hypomania may be associated with quetiapine treatment and defined as an adverse effect. Manic symptoms may be a ‘probable adverse effect’ according to the Naranjo adverse drug reactions probability scale, with a score of 6 points in both our cases. Several studies have suggested that quetiapine-induced mania/hypomania may be associated with frontal dopamine release via serotonin 5HT2A receptor blockade. Hence, clinicians should monitor the mood alterations of patients carefully during the atypical antipsychotic treatment. This is also the conclusion of our study as the patients may be slow metabolisers of CYP450-3A4, as suggested by their previous side effects on different antipsychotics.

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http://www.ssristories.com/show.php?item=3166

Paragraph 16 reads: "Paxil and other antidepressants known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, 'have a weird effect. You lose weight at the beginning, and you gain weight after,' Cohen says."

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=a86cb47c-6816-4b8f-96c7-38fde8d27b6d

Psychiatric drugs causing weight gain

Posted by: Rosie at May 21, 2009 05:19 AM

I am old enough that the metric system does not compute. To put this interms I can comprehend, here is my simple rule of thumb to guesstimate weight change in a study: simply double the kilograms to get pounds. Thus in that 2005 memo, study mean weight gain ranges from 3 - 12 kg, or from a low of 6 to high of 24 pounds.

Posted by: MedsVsTherapy at May 21, 2009 06:02 AM

My doctor told me only 10% of people gained weight, and then not much weight. The pharmacy reps are always there before my appointment time and they creep me out. They left a big pile of Seroquel on his desk, and sure enough, I walked out that day with a prescription for it. So far it's okay. Certainly it makes me sleep, and believe me that's hard to do.

Posted by: Jo at May 21, 2009 08:42 AM

Considering I take 200 mg of this drug I don't like to read about the harms.
All I know is that I'm still alive.
My family has numerous people who died young due to heart problems.
Both granddaddy for starters one of them at the age of 45 years-old.
I'm 50. Guess I'm lucky.

Posted by: Ana at May 26, 2009 01:46 AM

Philip Dawdy: Could you please elaborate on the statement you made about seeing AZ in court this summer?

I've gained over 30 lbs in the 3 years I've been taking Seroquel (and remeron, another culprit). I get the munchies about 1/2 hour after taking them and when I start, I cannot get enough food into me, and I'm never satisfied. I'm still wearing all that peanut butter and chocolate. I know that dieting won't help as long as I'm taking these drugs, yet I'm terrified of going back to bipolar II symptoms.

Posted by: maria at June 11, 2009 08:15 PM