Research
Hormonal
Daily subcutaneous administration of recombinant human leptin normalizes hyperphagia and induces significant weight loss in patients with congenital leptin deficiency.
If you have been diagnosed with congenital leptin deficiency, daily injections of recombinant leptin are the standard of care and can significantly reduce hunger and promote weight loss. This treatment is not effective for typical obesity where leptin levels are already high.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
The major effect of leptin administration in leptin deficiency is on food intake with normalisation of hyperphagia... Leptin therapy reduced energy intake during an 18 MJ ad libitum test meal by up to 84%... Recombinant leptin therapy led to remarkable beneficial effects for the leptin-deficient patients
Why this rating
Based on multiple clinical trials and long-term follow-up in patients with confirmed genetic mutations (LEP or LEPR).
Source
20 YEARS OF LEPTIN: Human disorders of leptin action
I Sadaf Farooqi et al. · Journal of Endocrinology · 2014
DOI 10.1530/joe-14-0480
narrative_reviewCited 253×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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