[GovernmentShrinker]

Doctors should be free to prescribe drugs for "off-label" uses, but then they need to be held responsible, especially if they failed to monitor the patient properly and/or failed to warn the patient in advance of possible side effects which would warrant immediate discontinuation and a prompt visit to the doctor or an emergency room. There are some off-label uses of Prozac that are widely regarded by researchers and doctors as appropriate and effective. As far as I know (and I'm pretty well-read on the topic), weight loss isn't one of them (though of course if weight gain has resulted from depression, it might cause weight loss as a secondary effect of treating the underlying problem).

[Nov3]

Doctors should be free to prescribe drugs for "off-label" uses, but then they need to be held responsible, especially if they failed to monitor the patient properly and/or failed to warn the patient in advance of possible side effects which would warrant immediate discontinuation and a prompt visit to the doctor or an emergency room.

Off label uses are an important and necessary part of medicine. However when a manufacturer promotes a tool and I believe a drug for some other use than it was approved for I believe it can be called misbranding by the FDA in some cases. This is not good for the company as far as legal protections are concerned. A doctor choices in treatment are one thing, the drug or tool companies choices are another.

That being said I think Lilly immediately came out and said that prosac should not be used as an adjunct to phentermine in weight loss when Phen-fen was pulled and doctor started subbing prosac. That would make it an off label use by a doctor.

[Nov3]

That would make it an off label use by a doctor.

Unless Lilly promoted it for that use.

[technochick99]

Weight *gain* is listed as a potential side effect for Paxil.