"i am 5 ft 9 starting weight 263. i was originally taking phentermine and topamax for weight loss. i did loose on that but those side effects are worse. it made by blood pressure and heart rate sore! my sister-in-law started taking contrave, with good results. at first, i was nervous about taking this medication because of a bunch of scary reviews. i did read enough positive i gave it a try. so glad i did. i did have the headache,  it was pretty bad, almost made me stop. i took something for the headache and it helped. that did take about 2 weeks to get through. i do not have any other bad side effects. not even dry mouth. i will admit, it wasn&#039;t doing much for my weight till i started taking 2 in morning and 1 in afternoon. weight 242 now."