Monthly Archive: December 2015

Recent research* published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry has lead to another class of medication being confirmed as a risk factor for weight gain, if taken for prolonged periods. The class of medication in question is the antidepressant class, and the research showed that a gain of up to 2kg per year may occur with the treatment. Note that weight gain during antidepressant treatment is not necessarily a bad outcome, if for example loss of weight had occurred prior to starting commencing treatment. Also note that weight gain during antidepressant treatment is not an inevitable outcome,...

A recent article about oils in Australian Doctor Magazine* has prompted an update on this important topic. Everyone is aware of the importance of fat content in the diet, but the detail of what fats/oils are good and what are not, and how much overall can be consumed, is not so straightforward. Most people know to avoid ‘saturated’ fats. ‘Saturated’ is a chemical term referring to the structure of the fat molecule and including fats which are solid at room temperature such as butter and other animal derived fats. In contrast, ‘unsaturated’ fats the ‘fats’ derived from vegetable and marine...