Zyprexa side effects - weight gain
The reason some antipsychotic drugs such as Zyprexa used to treat schizophrenia cause patients to gain a lot of weight is due to an increase in activity of an enzyme called AMPK in cells in the part of the brain that regulates eating behavior. The increase in the AMPK enzyme occurs even with very little doses of the Zyprexa drug. The use of Zyprexa drug has been crimped by concerns over weight gain

Pharmaceutical drug company advertising
Pharmaceutical drug companies are asked to pay $6 million in new fees in 2008r to help fund a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review of television commercials for their products. Pharmaceutical drug companies have been warned in the past about misleading claims. Drugmakers are not required to have FDA approval before running commercials, but many companies submit them ahead of time to avoid possible penalties for content.

Danger of pharmaceutical drugs
Reports of deaths or injuries related to pharmaceutical drug use more than doubled between 1998 and 2005 in the United States, with painkillers and immune-system boosters accounting for most of the side effects.

My 28 yr. old daughter was on Zeprexa for about 6 months in 2007 for OCD and depression - gained weight and her breasts got larger, had discharge, just to name a few of the side effects she had from this drug. Her doctor then switched her to Prozac, 15 ml a day, worked well and is still on Prozac at this strength. When she started to take Prozac things went back to normal, lost the weight and her breasts went back to normal. About a year ago this changed and she began to gain weight, breasts larger 36D (was 34B). She goes to the gym 4-5 times a week, 2 hours work-outs. She eats only the good food, and may only lose a pound or two, and then if she eats a normal meal - will gain 2-3 lbs. by the next day. After researching Prozac I note that it also can increase prolactin production, which explains why her breasts are D's and continue to discharge, and she continues to carry fat. Her trainer said that the way she eats and works out she should be trim and fit. He suggested she be tested for an under active thyroid and diabetes (I also suggested she be checked for too much prolactin). She is 5'4", petite frame, weights between 132 to 140 (was 115, which is her normal weight). It seems the fat won't go away, the flab remains at the surface. She had also taken Yasim for years - it didn't seem to cause breast size / discharge, even though after researching I note that it can because it can increase prolactin. She also took it at the time she was on Zeprexa and Prozac. She is now off all birth control pills just to see if this could be the cause of her weight gain. She has been off BCP for over a month and no change. So we think it's the prolactin production.

Use of Zyprexa for borderline personality disorders
Olanzapine for the treatment of borderline personality disorder: variable dose 12-week randomised double-blind placebo-controlled study.
Br J Psychiatry. 2008; Schulz SC, Zanarini MC, Bateman A, Bohus M, Detke HC, Trzaskoma Q, Tanaka Y, Lin D, Deberdt W. Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
We evaluated treatment with variably dosed olanzapine in individuals with borderline personality disorder. In this 12-week randomised, double-blind trial, individuals received olanzapine (2.5-20 mg/day) or placebo. Both olanzapine and placebo groups showed significant improvements but did not differ in magnitude at end-point. Response rates were 64% with olanzapine and 53% with placebo; however, time to response was significantly shorter for olanzapine. Weight gain was significantly greater, with higher incidence of treatment-emergent abnormal high levels of prolactin for the olanzapine group. Individuals treated with olanzapine and placebo showed significant but not statistically different improvements on overall symptoms of borderline personality disorder. The types of side effects observed with Zyprexa treatment appeared similar to those observed previously in adult populations.

Eli Lilly & Co. officials wrote medical journal studies about the antipsychotic Zyprexa and then asked doctors to put their names on the articles, a practice called “ghostwriting.” Lilly employees also compiled a guide to hiring scientists to write favorable articles, complained to journal editors when publication was delayed and submitted rejected articles to other outlets. Drugmaker use of ghostwriters has created “a huge body of medical literature that society can’t trust,” said Carl Elliott, a University of Minnesota bioethicist who has written about the practice. Lilly sought to make Zyprexa “the number one selling psychotropic in history,” according to a 2000 plan distributed to its product team. The memo was among more than 10,000 pages of internal documents unsealed in May 2009 in lawsuits by insurers and pension funds seeking to recoup monies spent on the drug. They allege Lilly exaggerated Zyprexa’s effectiveness. Lilly isn’t the only drugmaker to use ghostwriters to win favorable play in medical journals. Merck & Co. and Pfizer Inc. also have faced claims they used ghostwriters as part of their marketing plans. In May 2008, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey-based Merck agreed to pay $58 million to 29 states and stop ghostwriting articles to resolve claims that its advertisements for the withdrawn painkiller Vioxx hid the drug’s health risks. Lilly agreed in January 2009 to pay $1.4 billion to the U.S. government and more than 30 states to settle off-label marketing allegations over Zyprexa. The agreement included a $615 million penalty for a federal criminal charge. The company also faces suits from 12 states over its Zyprexa marketing practices. Cases brought by South Carolina and Connecticut officials are set for trial later this year.