Research

Hormonal

The addition of orlistat or sibutramine to a weight maintenance diet is associated with significant weight loss and generally improved cardiovascular risk factors in adults with obesity.

If you have obesity, adding orlistat or sibutramine to a weight maintenance diet can help you lose about 3-3.4 kg over 1.5-2 years and improve risk factors like cholesterol, though sibutramine may not help diastolic blood pressure.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The addition of the drugs orlistat or sibutramine was associated with weight loss and generally improved risk factors, apart from diastolic blood pressure for sibutramine.
Alison Avenell et al. · Health Technology Assessment · 2004

Why this rating

Based on systematic review of RCTs with follow-up of at least 1 year, though the authors note limitations in sample size and long-term follow-up.

Source

Systematic review of the long-term effects and economic consequences of treatments for obesity and implications for health improvement

Alison Avenell et al. · Health Technology Assessment · 2004

DOI 10.3310/hta8210

Meta-analysisCited 1,037×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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