Ancillary therapies for weight management, consisting mainly of diet and exercise programs that incorporate variable levels of lifestyle modification techniques, are frequently ineffective to achieve clinically meaningful weight loss and maintenance. Although pharmacological treatment of obesity is widely used in most countries, the number of available drugs is still very limited. The most widely used anti-obesity agents are sibutramine and orlistat, both available in clinical practice for about a decade. A large number of clinical trials have demonstrated that both […]

Current estimates suggest that over 1 billion people are overweight and over 300 million people are obese. Weight gain is due to an imbalance between energy expenditure and dietary intake. This review discusses the hypothalamic control of appetite and highlights key developments in research that have furthered our understanding of the complex pathways involved. Nuclei within the hypothalamus integrate peripheral signals such as adiposity and caloric intake to regulate important pathways within the central nervous system controlling food intake and […]

Increasing prevalence of obesity in children and adolescents might represent an emerging public health issue. Pathogenesis of obesity is multifactorial and involves a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors. Adolescent obesity has been seen as a cosmetic problem only; nevertheless, a significant increase in cardiovascular risk, probably due to obesity-related metabolic disarrangement has been observed. Consequently, discussion on strategies for treating childhood and adolescent obesity has been promoted worldwide. The proposed treatment triad is life style modification, pharmacological, and […]

This review offers an overview of physiological agents, current therapeutics, as well as medications, which have been extensively used and those agents not currently available or non-classically considered anti-obesity drugs. As obesity – particularly that of central distribution – represents an important triggering factor for insulin resistance, its pharmacological treatment is relevant in the context of metabolic syndrome control. The authors present an extensive review on the criteria for anti-obesity management efficacy, on physiological mechanisms that regulate central and/or peripheral […]

Weight loss improves metabolic abnormalities and reduces cardiovascular risk in obese hypertensive patients. To evaluate the impact of a sustained weight loss on coronary risk, 181 hypertensive patients with metabolic syndrome underwent to orlistat therapy, 120 mg, t.i.d., plus diet for 36 weeks. During therapy, Framingham risk scores (FRS) were calculated for determination of coronary heart disease risk in ten years. Body mass index decreased from 35.0 ± 4.2 to 32.6 ± 4.5 kg/m2 (p< 0.0001) and waist circumference from […]

This review presents information regarding both current therapy and pharmacological treatments commonly used in the past, but no longer available or not formally considered as anti-obesity agents. We extensively reviewed the criteria used by American and European agencies to evaluate efficacy and to approve anti-obesity drugs, and also comment on pharmacologic agent derivatives as: b-phenetilamine (dietylpropion, fenfluramine, dexfenfluramine, phentermine and sibutramine), tricyclic (mazindol), phenylpropanolamine (ephedrine, phenylpropanolamine), oxi-trifluor-phenylpropanolamine (fluoxetine), naftilamine (sertraline) and lipstatine (orlistat). Also, an analysis of all clinical trials […]

Avaliamos a eficácia e a tolerabilidade da associação de sibutramina (10mg) e orlistat (120mg três vezes por dia às refeições) no tratamento da obesidade em um estudo aberto de três meses de duração. O estudo envolveu 114 pacientes não diabéticos com sobrepeso ou obesidade em busca de tratamento em clínica privada. Após dois meses, a perda média de peso foi 7,1 kg (- 6,5%) e após três meses, a perda média de peso foi 8,9kg (- 8,2%). A associação de […]