Hello,

 I am taking a cocktail of medications for my condition, I am bipolar-schizoaffective. I have gained some weight while taking these medications. Will it affect any of the combination of my medications?

- Cymbalta

-Tegratol

-Wellbutrin

-Abilify

-Ativan

-Seroquel

I am not sure of their medical and technical names but I was wondering if any one has asked their medical doctor of a similar situation. I would truly appreciate any suggestions. I have been doing well with the Alli meal plan I want to start with the capsules already. Thanks...

Hello. Since alli works in the gut and is not systemically acting, it does not affect the central nervous system. There are no documented significant interactions between alli and the medications you list for your condition. I do recommend informing your physician(s) and pharmacist(s) of any over-the-counter medicatoins you take, including alli, because they need this information to take the best care of you and avoid problems.

Good luck and good health on the alli plan!

Maria Marzella Sulli, Pharm.D.

Thank you for your information I had asked my local pharmacist and told me I would be ok but just wanted to make sure. Again thank you for giving me more peace of mind. I hope this will finally work for what I call "medication weight" at 5'4 and 162 lbs. it's long due for me to get fit and not worry about my medications. I used to weigh 98 lbs in 2001 so you can see the urgency for me and my Alli.

Hi, I read your post. It was very interesting as I had just written a post about weight gain and mental health meds. I have gained nearly 40 pounds while on meds for anxiety. I have now tried every suitable med but they have all caused major weight gain. The saddest part is that I work out daily and do eat portions that are low in  fat and appropriately sized. I have to do this just to stay at 170. My weight should be 128 I tried to go off the meds several times but -NOT GOOD For yrs. I have worked with women in recovery who take meds. I now understand why despite my concerns they decide to go off. I do not recommend this . Has alli helped you??? My doctor actually gave me a prescribed med for weight loss that helped for about a yr. until I had to increase my wellbutrin. KK

Hi, I actually take Cymbalta for my depression, but I'm pretty sure my weight gain is all my fault. The thing is that I did ask my physician, and she recommended i DONT use alli.  Although the pharmacist said it was ok and that there would be no interaction between the two, my physician said that if alli is preventing absorption in the intestine of certain things that there is no way of knowing if it is also preventing partial medication absorption.   Most of these meds need to go through the blood stream to work.  I decided to take alli against her advice because I reallllllllllllllllly want to lose weight, and I've noticed an increase in my own depression and symptoms though I cannot directly correlate them with Alli.

My advice to you would be to observe your ups and downs on meds and within a week or two of starting Alli if you or your loved ones can notice a definite change in your behavior (barring any special stress in life) then maybe Alli is preventing your meds from going into your blood stream.  I would also do some research on your particular med to see how it goes into the bloodstream.  If it is already in your body and functioning before it even hits your intestine, then no worries.