Can sibutramine alter systemic blood pressure in obese patients? Systematic review and meta-analysis.
BACKGROUND
Systemic arterial hypertension is part of the metabolic syndrome resulting from obesity.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effect of sibutramine on overweight and obese patients' blood pressure through a systematic review.


METHODS
All the studies included needed to be randomized controlled trials. The methodological quality of the selected trials was assessed using the criteria described in the Cochrane Handbook. The participants were overweight and obese patients; the intervention was sibutramine compared with placebo. The primary outcome measurement was systolic and diastolic blood pressure and the secondary measurement was blood pressure. Studies were identified by searching the following sources: Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (Lilacs), Medline, Cochrane reviews, manual searches, personal communication and contact with the pharmaceutical industry. There were no language, date or other restrictions. Data collection and extraction was performed by two reviewers, who independently obtained the full articles of all eligible papers.


RESULTS
Three meta-analyses were produced: 1) systolic blood pressure outcome (eight studies) did not show statistical significance between sibutramine and placebo: weighted mean difference (WMD) 1.57, confidence interval (CI) -0.03 to 3.18; 2) diastolic blood pressure outcome (ten studies) did not show statistical significance between sibutramine and placebo: WMD 1.13, CI -0.49 to 2.76; 3) blood pressure outcome (two studies) also did not show statistical significance between the groups: relative risk (RR) 0.69, CI 0.07 to 7.01.


CONCLUSIONS
The meta-analyses presented in this systematic review show that sibutramine does not have a statistically significant effect on blood pressure, compared with placebo.
de Lemos
Hernani Pinto
HP
Brazilian Cochrane Center, Universidade Federal de São Paulo-Escola Paulista de Medicina (Unifesp-EPM), São Paulo, Brazil. cochrane.dmed@epm.br
Atallah
Alvaro Nagib
AN
de Lemos
André Luis Alves
AL
D001067:Appetite Depressants / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D003503:Cyclobutanes / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000188:drug therapy*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
D001067:Appetite Depressants; D003503:Cyclobutanes; C058254:sibutramine