Can risperidone or fluoxetine affect the development of muscles in men?

Question

I'm taking these two medicines to treat a terrible depression caused by OCD and loneliness.

The problem is that I like to work out my body. But I'm realizing that my arms' muscles are not getting strong as they were supposed to become.

In the other hand, my legs--which are being worked out too-- are becoming stronger.

I don't understand why the same don't happens to my arms.

I'm a slim 21 years old guy. I eat almost everything, except chocolate and candies, which I don't like very much. I'm sure the problem is not what I eat.

I've searched the internet for these two medicines I'm taking and I realized that they can cause symptoms that give female characteristics to the masculine body, like lactation and impotence. I'm not experiencing lactation.

But I realized that the muscles of my body that are developing more and getting stronger are exactly the ones that develops most in the average women's bodies.

I'm still not disproportionally in shape. I'm just not getting strong as a man's body is supposed to become with exercises.

So I was wondering if any doctor could help me explaining me if this unsatisfactory muscle development is related to the medicines I'm taking. Also, what should I do? This is very important to me. Thanks.

Answer 1

Dismiss the fluoxetine for a moment, I'll talk about it in a second.

Atypical antipsychotics like Risperdal can cause odd metabolic changes. Specifically they upregulate the body's generation of fat tissue. Risperdal isn't the worst about this, it's actually one of the nicer ones, but it can do it. Another unique feature of Risperdal is how hard it ups prolactin secretion. Prolactin doesn't do a lot for guys, but there's two big things - it cuts down on your estrogen, and it can interfere with s*x drive. The first, the estrogen, probably isn't a big deal. It can cause bone density problems long term, and lack of estrogen certainly isn't going to hurt your body building efforts. The second, the impotence and s*x drive mucking is a pretty direct on the s*x system in guys - it knocks down testosterone a bit, but it mainly hits from another angle I'm not familiar with. That lack of testosterone can hurt your efforts, but again. Not a lot.

The fluoxetine won't do a damned thing about body building. It's sexual effects are directly on the nerves, not on the hormones. Together, what they could do is redirect a good bit of your body's energy to building fat tissue. That could hurt. A bit.

But I don't think any of that matters. Because you're able to build muscles in one area. There's a huge amount of individual variation in what muscles develop easily in one person vs another. And a lot of it's genetic - for example people of Asian descent tend to be able to build lower body muscle very easily, but have difficulty building mass in the upper body. I'd say that you're not experiencing a side effect from the medications - this is just your 'body type'. You're probably going to have to work a lot harder on your arms than your legs, and that's not medication, that's just the way your body is put together. Don't let anyone tell you how you're supposed to strengthen when you work out. They're not you, and they don't have your body, and they don't know how your body works - and this varies a lot from person to person.

Answer 2

Your doctor or psychiatrist should have explained the side-effect sof both risperidone and fluoxetine at the time when they gave you the medications.  I suggest that you see either one of them and ask them advice on this matter.  Good luck.

Answer 3

There could be NOTHING more poisonous for your health than psych meds.

Read the folowing link

http://www.etfrc.com/ChemicalImbalances....

You've been lied to, whatever 'doc' claimed he knew you had biological disease took NO TEST, NO SCAN and presented you with no evidence.

You were gullible to think human distress in your life is understood on a biological level in 2008, that sort of stuff is centuries away.

You really ought to read that link pal

http://www.etfrc.com/ChemicalImbalances....

if these drugs can kill your liver, and they do, they can kill your muscles.