Recent progress in obesity pharmacotherapy.
Interest in obesity pharmacotherapy is intense, sparked by the public health threat of increases in obesity rates, as well as by increased knowledge of the biology underlying food intake and energy balance. After a hiatus of more than 20 years, three new medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for obesity treatment recently reached the marketplace. One of these, dexfenfluramine, has been withdrawn because of fenfluramine's and its isomer's association with valvular regurgitation. Sibutramine, a centrally acting reuptake inhibitor of monoamines, and orlistat, a pancreatic lipase inhibitor, have been approved for long-term obesity treatment. This review covers recent publications documenting clinical trial experience with these two agents and updates the evidence associating dexfenfluramine and fenfluramine with valvulopathy. As obesity rates increase throughout the world and as knowledge expands regarding the biology of obesity, an expansion of pharmacologic options for obesity treatment is certain.
Ryan
D H
DH
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70808, USA. ryandh@mhs.pbrc.edu