About Jason Bhan Expertise Insights into and general advice on the diagnosis, management and care to children and adolescents with behavior disorders, mood disorders, drug addiction, or social adjustment disorders.
I will not give specific treatment recommendations or perform online consultations.
Experience I am a board certified Family Physician with a special interest in pediatric and adolescent health. I have experience with pediatric and adolescent mood disorders (including ADD, ADHD, depression, Autism, and Autism spectrum disorders.
Organizations American Medical Association
American Academy of Family Physicians
Education/Credentials MD - 2000
Board Certification ACFP (American College of Family Physicians) - 2003
Question Hi
My name is name is Caroline and I was wondering if a 15 teen year old could take topamax as a weight loss supplement. I'm 5'7 and around 200lbs and I work out and eat healthy and I do have a lot of muscles. However I want to be around 150lbs. I have depression and am taking welburtran (spelling?). Is it safe for teens to take topamax? Is so then I will beg and plead for my doc to proscribe it for me. If not is there any other weight loss yet medical helpful meds I could ask my doctor if I shouldn't/couldn't take topamax?-thank you sooo much for your time.
Answer Hi Caroline,
First, I want to tell you how good it is that you are working to improve your health and wellbeing. I also want to say that weight is a secondary issue (in the eyes of a health professional). What you really should be concerned with is your heart health - this means aerobic exercise, etc to improve your health. With improved heart health, it is impossible to NOT lose weight and it is a great reward for hard work. You can cut your arm off and lose 20-30 pounds, but you are no healthier for it)
Weight and depression are a rather complex situation. Often times the depression causes one to eat more, filling an emotional void. It also happens that most of the anti depressant medications used today can cause weight gain as well - although it is less well understood as to whether it is a medication effect or the medications effect on the mood. Either way, you are on Wellbutrin which is the least likely to have that effect. (This is a good start - in fact many people on wellbutrin tend to lose weight).
You are exercising - Thank You! This is by far the most effective way to lose and maintain a loss of weight. I assume that you did not put this weigh on in a matter of weeks, so don't expect to lose it in that amount of time either - it generally takes 6-9 months before you start to notice a significant weight loss - although you will notice dropping clothing sizes, things fitting loser, family/friends commenting on how you look long before then. (Again - weight loss is secondary). Please, no matter what the course of events, continue to exercise - this must be a lifestyle (forever) change. The other half of this is portion size - figure that anytime you eat out, they serve you two times or more of the correct portion size. So cut it in half, throw out, share, or keep the other half for a meal the next day. Watch your carbs and stay away from sugared soda (High fructose corn syrup) as I have seen people drop 20 pounds just by quitting soda.
Now for the Topomax. Unfortunately, Topomax is not indicated for use for weight loss - so it is unlikely that most or any physician will prescribe it specifically for that. It is under investigation, so it may be available for this in the future. In the meantime I would probably avoid it as the side effects are fairly unappealing (tingling, nausea, confusion, etc). There are some instances where we prescribe Topomax for its primary purpose (chronic headaches, bipolar disorder, seizures) and get the added benefit of the weight gain - so if you also have one of these conditions and are not having success with your current treatment - you could consider topomax. The other problem is, if you take Topomax for a few months, lose some weight, then stop it - the weight generally comes back.
At this point, I would continue your exercise, modify your diet, and don't give up. Slow and steady wins the race - starvation diets, fad diets, pills, etc - you may drop weight quickly, but it ends up getting you in the end when you gain back that and then some!
