Off-label drugs for weight management.

The global pandemic of obesity and overweight now affects between 2.8 and 3.5 billion of the world population and shows no signs of abatement.

Pharmacotherapy for Obesity and Changes in Eating Behavior: a Patient and Physician's Perspective.

This article, co-authored by a patient with obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, and an obesity medicine specialist, discusses the patient's experience with the onset of diabetes complicating obesity and with her frustration living with these diagnoses until finding an obesity medicine specialist physician who helped her lose weight and reverse her diabetes. The patient continues to maintain a significant weight loss and is diabetes free for 5.5 years after treatment initiation.

How physician obesity medicine specialists treated obesity before 2012 new drug approvals.

Background: A survey of obesity medicine specialists was conducted before the approval of new obesity medications in 2012.

Methods: An Internet survey was sent to obesity medicine specialists inquiring about their practice and prescribing habits.

Results: Twenty-five percent of 1992 obesity medicine specialists responded.

Blood pressure and heart rate effects, weight loss and maintenance during long-term phentermine pharmacotherapy for obesity.

There is a perception that phentermine pharmacotherapy for obesity increases blood pressure and heart rate (HR), exposing treated patients to increased cardiovascular risk. We collected data from phentermine-treated (PT) and phentermine-untreated (P0) patients at a private weight management practice, to examine blood pressure, HR, and weight changes. Records of 300 sequential returning patients were selected who had been treated with a low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet if their records included complete weight, blood pressure, and HR data from seven office examinations during the first 12 weeks of therapy.

A study of abrupt phentermine cessation in patients in a weight management program.

Phentermine is the most widely used antiobesity drug in the United States. Although no evidence of phentermine addiction has been published, fear that phentermine has addiction potential has contributed to curtailment of its worldwide use in clinical practice. The aim of this study was to evaluate the abuse and addiction potential of long-term phentermine pharmacotherapy in patients in a weight management program.

Phentermine cardiovascular safety II: response to Yosefy Int J Cardiol. 2009 Epub Mar 19.

This is the fourth in a series of letters-to-the-editor discussing phentermine and cardiovascular safety. Yosefy et al., in reporting a case of aortic cusp tear in a 28 year-old woman with a bicuspid aortic valve, attributed the tear to previous phentermine therapy.

How physician obesity specialists use drugs to treat obesity.

Specialist physicians may have prescribing habits that are different from nonspecialist physicians. Little is known about the prescribing habits of physicians specializing in the treatment of obesity. An anonymous survey was given to the physician members of the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP).