Wonder slimming drug: It increases suicide risk

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14 June 2007

If you want to lose weight, don’t take the ‘wonder’ slimming drug Acomplia (rimonabant). Although it sailed through the approval process in Europe, and has been used in the UK for a year, American investigators have discovered the drug can increase the risk of suicide.

The drug has not yet been approved for use in America – where it would be marketed as Zimulti – although it had reached the final stages for approval, where the increased suicide risk was uncovered.

Rimonabant, manufactured by Sanofi Aventis, was hailed by the UK press as a miracle drug for people who were seriously overweight. This hyperbole was based on one study, which discovered that one-third of people on the drug lost 10 per cent of their body weight, and 60 per cent lost an unimpressive 5 per cent.

What was not so well reported was the fact that everyone in the trial was also on a low-calorie diet, and virtually everyone put the weight back on once they stopped taking the drug.

Exercise anyone?

E-news broadcast 14 June 2007 No.368 [Subscribe]

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