Does Contrave make you throw up?
Bottom line
Yes. Vomiting is listed among the common adverse reactions on Contrave's own FDA label, published 2025-11-17. It clusters in the days after each dose increase. Contrave steps up on a published schedule that reaches the maintenance dose at week 4, so the pattern most people see is a few rough days after each step and a settling in between — not one long stretch. Once you are at 2 tablets twice a day and no longer stepping up, the trigger stops recurring.
Last updated 2025-11-17 — the FDA label this page quotes
Does Contrave make you throw up?
Yes, and it is on the label rather than only in reports: vomiting appears among the common adverse reactions in Contrave's FDA prescribing information, published 2025-11-17. Listed means it was seen often enough in the trials to be printed, not that everyone gets it. Vomiting is nausea that went further, and it comes from the same slowed stomach emptying. It clusters in the days after a dose increase and is the single most common reason people stop these drugs early. It clusters in the days after each dose increase. Contrave steps up on a published schedule that reaches the maintenance dose at week 4, so the pattern most people see is a few rough days after each step and a settling in between — not one long stretch. Once you are at 2 tablets twice a day and no longer stepping up, the trigger stops recurring. What helps, in the order worth trying: treating it as the escalation of nausea: smaller meals, less fat, slower eating; fluid in small amounts and often, rather than a large drink that sits; raising it with the prescriber before the next increase rather than after it. It stops being ordinary at a specific line: vomiting that stops you keeping fluids down, or lasts more than a day. Prolonged vomiting is the mechanism behind the acute kidney injury on these labels, and it is also how pulmonary aspiration under anaesthesia happens — tell any anaesthetist you are on this drug.
Why Contrave does this
Vomiting is nausea that went further, and it comes from the same slowed stomach emptying. It clusters in the days after a dose increase and is the single most common reason people stop these drugs early.
When it happens, against Contrave's own schedule
Tablets, twice a day. Each row is a step up, and the days after each one are when this tends to arrive.
| Weeks | Dose |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | 1 tablet in the morning |
| Week 2 | 1 morning, 1 evening |
| Week 3 | 2 morning, 1 evening |
| Week 4 and on | 2 morning, 2 evening |
What actually helps
- 1Treating it as the escalation of nausea: smaller meals, less fat, slower eating.
- 2Fluid in small amounts and often, rather than a large drink that sits.
- 3Raising it with the prescriber before the next increase rather than after it.
This is not a GLP-1: it is naltrexone plus bupropion, and its risks are neurological and cardiovascular rather than gastrointestinal. Anyone taking an opioid, including buprenorphine for addiction, cannot take it at all.
When to stop reading and call someone
Vomiting that stops you keeping fluids down, or lasts more than a day. Prolonged vomiting is the mechanism behind the acute kidney injury on these labels, and it is also how pulmonary aspiration under anaesthesia happens — tell any anaesthetist you are on this drug.
Separately, Contrave carries a boxed warning. Bupropion raises the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviour in children, adolescents and young adults. The label carries that as a boxed warning and tells prescribers to watch for mood changes, particularly in the first months and after any dose change.
The other 3 common reactions on Contrave's label
If you are thinking of switching
Vomiting is on the label of most drugs in this class, so a switch is not a reliable way out of it. What a switch does change is what you pay, and Contrave is $99 a month at the maintenance dose here.
Every alternative to Contrave, with each one's verified price and the date it was read →
Contrave and vomiting, answered
- Does Contrave make you throw up?
- Yes — vomiting is listed among the common adverse reactions on Contrave's FDA prescribing information, published 2025-11-17. Listed means it was seen often enough in the trials to be printed, not that it happens to everyone.
- How long does Contrave vomiting last?
- It clusters in the days after each dose increase. Contrave steps up on a published schedule that reaches the maintenance dose at week 4, so the pattern most people see is a few rough days after each step and a settling in between — not one long stretch. Once you are at 2 tablets twice a day and no longer stepping up, the trigger stops recurring.
- What helps with vomiting on Contrave?
- Treating it as the escalation of nausea: smaller meals, less fat, slower eating. Fluid in small amounts and often, rather than a large drink that sits. Raising it with the prescriber before the next increase rather than after it.
- When is vomiting on Contrave serious?
- Vomiting that stops you keeping fluids down, or lasts more than a day. Prolonged vomiting is the mechanism behind the acute kidney injury on these labels, and it is also how pulmonary aspiration under anaesthesia happens — tell any anaesthetist you are on this drug.
- Would switching drugs help?
- Possibly, and possibly not — vomiting is listed on the labels of most drugs in this class, so a switch is not a way out of it by default. What a switch does change is the price: every verified route to each molecule is priced on this site with the date each figure was read.
Everything above is read from FDA prescribing information for CONTRAVE, published 2025-11-17. Information only, not medical advice — a symptom that worries you is a call to your prescriber, not a search result.