Acomplia hype spreads, granting the drug a "miracle cure" status

• This new healthy lifestyle could be as easy as just popping a pill, if the hype surrounding the new "wonder drug" Acomplia is to be believed.
• The drug has been shown to help people quit smoking - without the usual expanding waistline - and induce weight loss.
• Trials to see if the drug cuts patients' alcohol intake are under way and some experts have suggested it could be a potential treatment for schizophrenia and serious drug addiction.
• Obesity drastically raises the risk of other ailments such as diabetes and heart disease.
• It will not be easy to become a sylph-like picture of health, even when using the drug.
• The average weight loss is about 7kg (15.4 lbs) - with the average weight being 102kg - in the first year of taking the drug, compared with a 2kg loss in those taking placeboes.
• The proportions of patient numbers are small but those taking it in trials showed more depression, anxiety, nausea and irritability than those on a placebo, although these effects seemed to fade in the second year.
• However, doctors might prefer this to the side-effects of other obesity drugs on the market.
• Because Acomplia affects the brain, it is the side-effects that are difficult to measure that worry some experts.
• The drug acts on a relatively recently discovered system in the body, the cannabinoid system, so called because cannabis produces its effects there.
• Acomplia does the opposite of cannabis: it turns off the receptors while cannabis excites them, though its mechanism is not fully understood.
• The doses in these animal experiments may not be equivalent to the doses in the recent human trials, so the effects might not be the same.