Green Tea Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Green Tea, including details on benefits, antioxidants, weight loss, diet, side effects.

Weight gain and psychiatric treatment: is there as role for green tea and conjugated linoleic acid?

Katzman MA, Jacobs L, Marcus M, Vermani M, Logan AC

START Clinic for the Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Toronto, Canada. mkatzman@startclinic.ca

Dietary supplement use is widespread in developed nations. In particular, patients who utilize mental health services also report frequent consumption of dietary supplements, often in relation to management of adverse events and specifically weight gain. Weight gain induced by psychotropic medications can further compound psychological distress and negatively influence compliance. Here we report on four cases of social anxiety disorder treated with the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine. Self-administration of conjugated linoleic acid and green tea extract may have influenced objective anthropomorphic measurements; each patient had an unexpected decrease in total body fat mass, a decrease in body fat percentage and an increase in lean body mass. Since weight gain is a common and undesirable side-effect with psychiatric medications, our observation strongly suggests the need for controlled clinical trials using these agents.

Published 24 May 2007 in Lipids Health Dis, 6: 14.
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