Usage,risk,and benefit of weight-loss drugs in primary care

Purpose. to investigate the use of the weight-loss drugs rimonabant,sibutramine,and orlistat in primary care and to characterize the patients receiving the drugs. methods. in this retrospective,descriptive study,300 randomly selected patients having started weight-loss drug treatment at 15 primary care centres were investigated using the patient's medical records and their complete drug purchase data. results. even though 48% of the patients specifically demanded drug treatment,77% continued treatment less than one year. 28% of rimonabant patients and 32% of sibutramine patients had a history of depression or antidepressant treatment. 41% of sibutramine patients had a history of hypertension and/or cardiovascular disease. 36% had no documented weight after treatment initiation. conclusions. these results suggest that weight-loss drug treatment was often initiated upon patient request but was of limited clinical benefit as it was managed in a large portion of swedish primary carecenters. © 2011 tomas forslund et al.