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Are Anorectic Agents the 'Magic Bullet' for Obesity?
Susan Zelitch Yanovski, MD
Arch Fam Med. 1993;2(10):1025-1027.
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STUNKARD'S SUMMARY of obesity treatment, made 35 years ago, is still quite apropos today. Medical therapy of obesity is still unsatisfactory. Two features of treatment, however, have changed since 1958. First, a greater proportion of the population is entering treatment. At present, over $30 billion is spent every year on weight loss treatment,2 and at any given time up to 50% of all women and 25% of all men report being on a diet to lose weight.3,4 Second, therapies are now more intensive, multimodal, and of longer duration.5 While very modest weight losses were obtained with conventional treatments in the early 1950s,6 weight losses of 20 kg or more are now common among severely obese patients.7 With so many people on diets and with more effective treatments available, why, then, are Americans getting fatter? One reason is is that while the treatments for obesity are more effective in the short term, they
. . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]
Author Affiliations
Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Bethesda, Md
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