Originally published February 26 2006
Acomplia found to produce sustained weight loss in New York study
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A limited study carried out by New York's Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons claims that Acomplia, a weight loss drug also known as rimonabant, was effective in promoting sustained weight loss, thought the report said additional studies will be needed to assess the overall effects of the drug.
An anti-obesity drug that turns off the same brain circuits which trigger the marijuana-induced munchies appears to produce sustained weight loss among patients who took it in a two-year study, researchers said on Tuesday.
The report by New York's Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons also said the drug -- Sanofi-Aventis SA's Acomplia, or rimonabant -- needs additional study for its long-term effects and said the research was limited by a high dropout rate.
Tuesday's report, carried in the Journal of the American Medical Association, was based on a study involving more than 3,000 patients that began in 2001 and also involved diet and exercise changes.
The basic findings were released at an American Heart Association meeting in late 2004.
The final study said the drug plus diet and exercise "promoted modest but sustained reductions in weight and waist circumference and favorable changes in cardiometabolic risk factors" such as cholesterol and triglycerides.
Up to 48 percent of the patients in the study saw a weight loss of 5 percent or more after one year, depending on the dose of the drug.
Rimonabant is the first of a new class of drugs that works by blocking cannabinoid receptors found in the brain and other body tissues which stimulate eating in general and are the culprits in hunger after marijuana use.
In an editorial commenting on the report, experts from the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute sounded a cautionary note, saying that while the study showed promise the researchers should have done more follow-up work.
Because obesity seems to be a societal problem, attacks against it "are needed in settings where people live, work, and play as well as in clinical practice.
Drug treatments for obesity should be considered within this broader context and their current role should be limited pending further evidence," it said.
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