Research
Hormonal
Semaglutide treatment (up to 2.4 mg weekly) significantly reduces body weight, fat mass, and emotional eating behaviors in patients with hypothalamic obesity resulting from craniopharyngioma.
For patients with hypothalamic obesity due to brain tumors or surgery, semaglutide (up to 2.4 mg/week) combined with dietary counseling can significantly reduce weight and emotional eating, even when other treatments fail. It works by targeting brain circuits beyond the damaged hypothalamus.
LimitedSupportsLOW confidence
BMI was reduced in all cases, with an average of 7.9 BMI (range: 6.7 to 10.1) corresponding to a weight loss of 17.0% (range: 11.3–22.4%) or 20.2 kg (range 16.2 kg to 23.4 kg)... Unfavorable eating behaviors were reduced after 1 month of treatment (emotional eating − 41 points, p = 0.02, uncontrolled eating − 23 points, p = 0.11).
Why this rating
Small case series (n=4), no control group, but objective DXA and biomarker data.
Source
Semaglutide as a promising treatment for hypothalamic obesity: a six-month case series on four females with craniopharyngioma
Erlend Gjersdal et al. · Pituitary · 2024
DOI 10.1007/s11102-024-01426-8
case_series · n=4Cited 15×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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