Can one use Zyprexa for depression?

Zyprexa, alternatively known as olanzapine is a mood stabilizer. FDA had released Zyprexa for treating antipsychotic, schizophrenia as well as bipolar disorders. However, lately medical practitioners have found that this drug has mood stabilizing properties. It was then that FDA approved marketing of Zyprexa (olanzapine) as a mood stabilizer. Zyprexa is now being used for treating bipolar disorders as well as symptoms of depression, eating disorders and mood swings. Little did the doctors know at that time that advocating Zyprexa for treatment of depression can lead to many side effects.

According to the World Health Organization, depression will become the second leading cause of disability by the year 2020 after heart disease. Depression is characterized by feeling of fatigue, tiredness and is also accompanied by weight fluctuations.

Some of the secondary complications that accompany the administration of Zyprexa include diabetes, stroke and even cardiovascular disease. Apart from these unavoidable complications, Zyprexa can also lead to undue weight gain in people with lean mass. In routine doses of 10 – 20 mg it can cause lot of weight gain. In addition to this, a 2004 Consensus statement from the American Diabetic Association and American Psychiatric Association warned people taking Zyprexa of diabetes along with its mostly deadly secondary complication called “DKA”.

Still, these side effects reported do not make a complete picture. They all look more like individual cases. The percentage of people experiencing such side effect is yet not known and has nver been practically studied. However, many patients have reported that they have experienced difficulties when trying to withdraw Zyprexa.

Being similar to Clozapine, another anti-psychotic used to treat schizophrenia, Zyprexa has been used atypically to treat dementia, anorexia, Tourette's syndrome and depressive symptoms associated with bipolar disorder. Zyprexa is approved by the FDA to be taken for depression in conjunction with an Prozac (Fluoxetine) antidepressant. FDA has also approved Symbyax (longstanding Zyprexa/Prozac combo drug) for the treatment of resistant depression, meaning depression that hasn't responded to two anti-depressants.