Prescription Drugs for Weight Loss

Hi everyone, I saw my general practice Dr. yesterday for a regular check up and asked her about prescription weight loss drugs.  Since I quit drinking alcohol last March, I get these horrible compulsions to eat every evening when I used to overindulge in wine.  Most of the weight loss drugs on the market seem to reduce appetite and she says can be effective but weven agreed they won't do anything for me because appetite is not the problem - it's compulsion.  

She said a lot of medications such as Naltexone in combination with an SSRI are starting to be prescribed.  I am already taking an SSRI (Cymbalta).  She didn't feel comfortable prescribing Naltrexone for me because she doesn't have enough experience and feels my addiction counselor (I'm in recovery for alcohol abuse) would be a better fit for prescribing it but thinks it would be a tremendous help with the "binge" eating at night.  She said a lot of medications for compulsion and addiction are proving to be much more successful for patients with binge eating habits than typical diet drugs.

I just wanted to see what you guys thought. 

In the meantime, I'll keep plugging away and saving calories for my late night indulgence. 

Hi there!

im sure there will be people who will respond with much more advice and insight than I can. I have seen folks on here with prescriptions for binge eating disorder. I hope they reach out.

I understand that binge eating disorder is a complicated issue.But one thing I realized while journaling during pre op, was the days I binged in the evenings, were days when I had consumed too few calories during the day. I was so disconnected from body, I couldn't read the signals. And that could send me down an over eating rabbit hole for days...I can totally understand wanting to save calories, but it might be worth trying for a few days, to spread them out a bit, and see if that helps ? 

Good luck! And keep at it!

I've been diagnosed with Binge Eating Disorder and Vyvanse is the only medication that's currently FDA approved for treatment of BED.  I'm happy to answer any questions you might have about my experience with it. 

I tried a drug called Contrave (Which is Naltrexone + Wellbutrin) -- The appetite supression was good, and the naltrexone made binge eating less fun, but then I just ate out of spite.  My big killer was a horrific sugar addiction.

Medication can be good for the right person -- Wellbutrin by itself was great when I was in the correct state of mind.

Psych meds are weird-- I was on Wellbutrin for years for depression, and it totally kickstarted my appetite for the first six months I was on it.

Yeah -- they are odd.  I had quit smoking probably 5-6 years before I started on Wellbutrin for appetite suppression, but never really got over smoking.  The Wellbutrin kicked that urge to the curb in a whole hurry -- I knew that was an off label use, but was still very impressed by its efficacy.

The appetite suppression was quick for me -- took about 1-2 weeks for full force.  Did really well for several months -- lost about 50 pounds over 4-6 months, but eventually ate myself back into a (much deeper) hole.

I think your doc is right on target to recommend addressing your compulsion tendencies before WLS or weight loss medications.  I've seen many with the same problem fail miserably who thought WLS would fix what was going on in their heads.