Phentermine Shows Promise in Enhancing Weight Loss for Patients Discontinuing GLP-1s: Study
USA: In the realm of weight management, the quest for effective strategies continues to evolve, with recent findings shedding light on promising approaches for patients who may not achieve the desired results with their initial treatments. A groundbreaking study has unveiled that individuals who struggle to lose significant weight with GLP-1 treatment may experience substantial weight reduction upon transitioning to phentermine, offering renewed hope in the battle against obesity.
Recent findings showed that patients prescribed phentermine after losing fewer than 20 pounds while on a GLP-1 receptor agonist were more likely to lose weight one year after GLP-1 discontinuation versus those not prescribed phentermine. The data are from a non-peer-reviewed report by Epic Research.
"Patients prescribed phentermine after GLP-1 medication discontinuation were 29% less likely to regain all the weight they lost on the GLP-1 medication one year after the end of their GLP-1 treatment than those who were not prescribed phentermine (19.3% versus 27.3%)," the researchers reported.
Phentermine is one of the earliest FDA-approved weight loss medications that function by appetite suppression. Kersten Bartelt, RN, a clinician at Epic Research, and colleagues aimed to determine whether patients who transitioned to phentermine after discontinuing a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1) medication maintained or experienced additional weight loss.
For this purpose, they studied 7,773 patients who were prescribed phentermine following GLP-1 medication discontinuation. They categorized patients based on the amount of weight they lost while on GLP-1 treatment.
They found that patients who maintained their weight or gained weight while on a GLP-1 medication were most likely to experience weight loss after switching to phentermine, with a median weight loss of around 3% in the year after GLP-1 medication discontinuation. Those who switched to phentermine after losing at least 20 pounds while on the GLP-1 medication were most likely to regain weight one year after GLP-1 medication discontinuation, with more than half regaining some or all their weight.
The researchers then evaluated whether patients prescribed phentermine after GLP-1 medication discontinuation were more likely to keep their weight off one year later than those who did not start phentermine after discontinuing their GLP-1.
The research team found that 27.3% of patients who did not use phentermine after their GLP-1 medication regained all the weight they lost while on the GLP-1 compared to 19.3% of patients who started phentermine after discontinuing their GLP-1.
"There is a need for more research on the long-term impacts of switching from GLP-1s to phentermine," they concluded.
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