Research

Hormonal

Off-label use of topiramate and/or metformin achieves clinically significant preoperative weight loss (>8% total body weight loss) in patients with BMI ≥50 kg/m2 who fail standard bariatric nutritional prescriptions due to dysregulated appetite.

If you have a BMI over 50 and are waiting for bariatric surgery but struggle with hunger and cravings despite dieting, ask your doctor about off-label use of generic Topiramate or Metformin. These drugs can help suppress appetite and facilitate the weight loss needed to make surgery safer and more successful, often at a fraction of the cost of newer branded drugs.

LimitedSupportsLOW confidence
Each patient was prescribed metformin and/or topiramate in an off-label manner in conjunction with lifestyle modifications and achieved >8% total body weight loss during the preoperative period.
Cetin Sari et al. · Frontiers in Endocrinology · 2021

Why this rating

Case report series with no control group; high risk of bias and low generalizability.

Source

Case Report: Off Label Utilization of Topiramate and Metformin in Patients With BMI ≥50 kg/m2 Prior to Bariatric Surgery

Cetin Sari et al. · Frontiers in Endocrinology · 2021

DOI 10.3389/fendo.2021.588016

case_report · n=3Cited 20×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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