Research
Hormonal
Older anti-obesity medications (Orlistat, Sibutramine, Phentermine, Naltrexone/Bupropion, Phentermine/Topiramate) achieve mean weight loss between 5-10%, which is often insufficient to meet patient expectations and leads to lower long-term adherence.
Older anti-obesity medications (like Orlistat, Sibutramine, and combination drugs) typically produce 5-10% weight loss, which is beneficial but often fails to meet patient expectations, leading to higher discontinuation rates compared to newer agents.
GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
Historically, anti-obesity medications achieved a mean efficacy with weight loss between 5 and 10%, which significantly impacted several comorbidities and risk factors, but the average efficacy of these medications remained lower than that expected by both patients and health care professionals and eventually curbed long-term use.
Why this rating
Based on multiple RCTs and meta-analyses cited in the review.
Source
Pharmacotherapy for obesity: moving towards efficacy improvement
Walmir Coutinho et al. · Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome · 2024
DOI 10.1186/s13098-023-01233-4
narrative_reviewCited 45×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Semaglutide 2.4 mg weekly induces mean weight loss of ~15% and enables >20% weight loss in significant patient subsets, significantly outperforming older anti-obesity medications and lifestyle interventions alone.Strong
- Bariatric surgery is currently the most effective treatment for obesity in terms of mortality reduction and comorbidity resolution, but it is restricted to higher BMI classes and not suitable for all patients.Strong
Related findings · Hormonal
- Initial treatment for type 2 diabetes should be a combination of metformin and either an SGLT-2 inhibitor or a GLP-1 receptor agonist to achieve cardiorenal protection, rather than monotherapy or older agents like sulfonylureas.Strong
- For patients with specific monogenic obesity syndromes (leptin deficiency, POMC/PCSK1/LEPR mutations), targeted pharmacotherapy (recombinant leptin or setmelanotide) is highly effective and should be prioritized, unlike in polygenic obesity.Strong
- Continued weekly administration of 2.4 mg subcutaneous semaglutide prevents weight regain and promotes further weight loss in adults with overweight or obesity, whereas switching to placebo results in significant weight regain.Strong
This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →