Phentramine Side Effects

[Montrelle]

Mr. Dorfman,  I started seeing a weight loss doctor back in 2009 and was prescribed Phentermine as part of his program.  I did very well on the program losing over 50 lbs in a 4 month period.  My goal was to lose 80 lbs so I continued to see the doctor monthly but after the 4 month mark, I stopped losing weight and began to get very tired.  My condition worsened rapidly to the point of extreme exhaustion, headaches, and eventually no desire to do anything.  I talked with the doctor about this on more than one occasion but he had no answer for me and told me that I needed to see another doctor for my extreme exhaustion all the while he continued to give me my monthly prescription of phentermine.  My condition got so bad that I could not get out of the bed some days.  I thought there must be something seriously wrong with me so I took the doctor's advice and went to another doctor, actually several doctors.  I had 2 sleep studies done, stress test, testosterone treatment while seeing several doctors.  Nothing helped!  After about a year of frustration with this, I decided to change my PCP and went in for the initial physical.  I went through all the history with him and he said, "you may be depressed" and prescribed Welbutrin.  Within about a week of taking the Welbutrin, I started to feel better, not back to 100% but much better than before.  It never occurred to me that taking Phentermine for an extended period of time could cause this but after reading about the side effects online, many people attribute their depression to Phentermine.  Also, I have read that prolonged use of Phentermine can cause a permanent loss of serotonin therefore an irreversible condition causing life-long depression.  I have also read that Phentermine should not be taken for more than a couple of months at a time even though the weight loss doctor gave it to me for many months(almost a year) before I stopped seeing him.  Now, I take Welbutrin daily just to function and I am nowhere near 100%.  I have been on it for about a year but it is starting to lose it's effectiveness. If I dont take it even for one day, I cant get out of bed.  I have put back on all the weight and more from when I first saw the weight loss doctor because I cant get off the couch.  This has affected every aspect of my life and I cant help but feel the weight loss doctor's negligence in prescribing phentermine for as long as he did has caused all this.  I  was a very energetic, active, fun loving, extremely productive person before and now I am a shell of my former self.  Does the doctor have any responsibility in this case?  thanks for your help.

[tamas94]

David: Your question was of interest to me because I was heavily involved with the Phen(Phentermine)-Fen(Fenfluramine) litigation representing dozens of clients.  I am sure that my bottom line answer to you is correct but I am not sure that I can adequately explain it to you in this context. Here it goes:  Let's assume all of your worst suspicions are correct.  You were prescribed the drug for too long and not only did it cause you to gain the weight back but it caused chronic depression in you.  Take that as a given. Would a lawyer ever take your case? No. Why?  Because you could never sufficiently prove it.  The problem is, you have had a veight problem for many years.  That is your default setting so to speak. Very few people ever permanently overcome the problem. So, forget about blaming the drug or the doctor on that count. As to the depression, if you sued the doctor the doctor's high paid attorneys would scour your entire medical history and find lots of evidence that you had depression, fatigue, etc. in your past. Again, you have just returned to the default setting, they would argue.  Don't blame the drug, don't blame the doctor.  That might all be total BS but it will be effective. So any lawyer taking your case looks at having to find an expert, as a very early step, to review your entire life/medical history and be willing to say that you would have been skinny and happy except for this doctor who did something way out of line that no other doctor in their right mind would do. Finding such an "expert" would be very difficult and very expensive. Your lawyer is out about 5K of his pocket by now.  Defense side brings in heavy weight(no pun intended) experts on their side saying the doctor did everything within the standard of care although they are sorry you have had such a difficult time. Your lawyer must then take depositions of those experts. Ad another 5K-10K. Your lawyer is out of pocket about 15-18K by now. Literally hundreds of hours must be invested by your lawyer and no way on Earth this kind of case would ever get a settlement offer.  In their view(no offense intended here) this is just a case of a fat depressed guy blaming his doctor who tried to help and trying to make some fast money in the process. That is how you would perceived. Unfair? Sure. That's the way it would be. If you go to trial, your lawyer is then having to commmit double the money he already spent, to get your experts into court to testify, not to mention many other costs.  The defense view would be argued to a jury. Chances are, enough will buy that BS to defeat your case. Your lawyer is out probably 35K from his pocket and no payment for all his effort.  That is the likely scenario.  So do you understand that no lawyer in his right mind would take such a risk?  Depression is just too difficult to define, difficult to isolate in a person's life, too difficult to trace to a specific cause, etc.  A med malpractice case only works when the medical care is just over the top negligent. Something way out of order that would shock any other doctor, and what your doctor did here just doesn't meet that standard. Afterall, when things were getting out of control and he didn't know what to do, he did the right thing by sending you to someone who could help. The jury would see him as a doctor who certainly wanted to see you succeed, he did what he thought was best, but it just didn't work out. They won't punish him for that, regardless of what the truth may be.  There is no viable case here. I hope accept this opinion in the same light........that I do want to help you. P.S. More often than not I give an answer like this and the questioner rates me as not knowing what I am talking about. Believe me, I do. Good luck.  P.S.S.  I make a living suing doctors for malpractice.