Obesity & Weight Loss Drug Study
Weight Loss Drug Study Trial
Although obesity, especially abdominal obesity, is the commonest cause
of health complications, doctors most often use drugs to treat the complications
rather than the underlying condition. This situation can be attributed
to several factors, including lack of recognition of obesity as an important
causal factor, doctors' ignorance about the potential contribution of
drugs to managing obesity, and a lack of evidence that weight loss drugs
can help maintain a reduced body weight while improving the patient's
health profile. A recent trial has now provided some good evidence of
the long term effectiveness of a weight loss drug.
Weight Loss Drug Trial Aim
The recently published STORM (sibutramine trial of obesity reduction and
maintenance) differs from previous weight loss trials. Its objective was
not to show that sibutramine, a drug acting on the central nervous system
and increasing energy expenditure, could induce significant weight loss
beyond that achieved by a reduced calorie diet or placebo effect that
already has been well documented. Rather, it aimed to test whether sibutramine
therapy for an additional period of 18 months could prevent weight regain
among obese patients who had achieved a weight loss of over 5% over six
months with an initial dose of 10 mg/day.
Weight Loss Drug Study Trial - Weight
Loss Maintenance
Of the 467 patients who lost 5% of their body weight in the first phase
and who were then randomised to sibutramine or placebo for the second
phase, 43% of the sibutramine treated patients maintained at least 80%
of their weight loss compared with only 16% in the placebo group. Furthermore,
significant changes in cardiovascular disease risk factors were noted,
including reduced triglyceride concentrations, increased high density
lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol concentrations, reduced cholesterol:HDL
cholesterol ratio (an important index to predict the risk of coronary
heart disease), reduced insulinaemia and C peptide levels, and decreased
uric acid concentrations.
For conclusions, see Weight
Loss Drug Trial
Source: bmj journals. 2001
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