Efficacy comparison of medications approved for chronic weight management. Review uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • For the first time, patients who are obese are able to benefit from 5 different FDA approved pharmacologic agents for chronic weight management. Although weight loss from all of these medications was limited to 5% to 10% of total body weight loss in the Phase III clinical trials, patients are capable of losing more weight when a cumulative approach of diet, exercise, and multiple medications are used. A pilot study of adding phentermine to lorcaserin yielded double the weight loss than lorcaserin alone. A higher percentage of total body weight is lost with use of combination phentermine/topiramate compared to orlistat, lorcaserin, and bupropion/naltrexone but there are more contraindications to its use and potential cardiovascular adverse effects due to adrenergic agonism. Lorcaserin and bupropion/naltrexone yielded similar weight loss but carry different adverse effect profiles and interactions with other psychiatric medications may preclude use of one over the other. When choosing a medication for obesity, several factors need to be considered, such as comorbidities, medication interactions, and risk of potential adverse effects.

publication date

  • April 1, 2015

Research

keywords

  • Anti-Obesity Agents
  • Appetite Depressants
  • Obesity

Identity

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84928112309

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1002/oby.21093

PubMed ID

  • 25900871

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 23 Suppl 1