Sufferers pharmaceuticals to assist them drop some pounds could expertise a rebound in weight achieve after halting their prescription, finds a meta-analysis printed in BMC Drugs.
The examine, which analyzes knowledge for sufferers receiving weight reduction medicine throughout 11 randomized trials, means that whereas the quantity of weight regain varies relying on the particular drug, there’s a broad pattern in related weight regain after the course of medicine concluded.
Six anti-obesity medicines (AOMs) have been accredited by the US FDA to be used in aiding with weight reduction, together with orlistat, phentermine-topiramate, and semaglutide. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1)—a therapeutic developed to help with diabetes—has additionally more and more been prescribed to assist sufferers drop some pounds. Nevertheless, current research have urged that sufferers prescribed AOMs could regain weight within the months after stopping taking these medicines.
Xiaoling Cai, Linong Ji, and colleagues performed a meta-analysis of 11 research from all over the world investigating weight change in sufferers after they stopped taking AOMs.
General, the authors analyzed knowledge from 1,574 members in therapy teams and 893 in management teams. Weight change was measured by adjustments in physique weight and BMI after stopping medicine.
Of the 11 research included within the meta-analysis, six centered on GLP-1 receptor agonists (RAs); one centered on GLP-1 and GLP twin Ras; one examine centered on orlistat; two research on phentermine-topiramate; and one examine on naltrexone-bupropion.
The authors managed for various contributing components, together with medicine sort, the presence of diabetes, and the presence or absence of life-style adjustments like food plan or train.
Their evaluation discovered that AOMs had been related to important weight reduction whereas getting used, adopted by weight regain beginning eight weeks after AOM discontinuation, with weight regain then persevering with for a median of 20 weeks earlier than plateauing.
Weight regain different with follow-up, with examine members experiencing important durations of weight regain at eight, 12, and 20 weeks after AOM discontinuation.
The quantity of weight regained trusted a number of components, together with the kind of medicine taken by members and the consistency of their life-style change. For instance, members who accomplished a 36-week therapy with tirzepatide, a commercially out there GLP-1 RA, regained virtually half the burden beforehand misplaced after switching to a placebo.
The authors be aware the meta-analysis didn’t embrace research of life-style interventions and bariatric surgical procedure, decreasing the diploma to which completely different weight reduction approaches could possibly be in contrast inside the context of the examine.
In addition they be aware that weight regain has been reported with different weight reduction strategies, equivalent to gastric bypass and vertical banded gastroplasty.
Extra data:
Xiaoling Cai, Trajectory of the physique weight after drug discontinuation within the therapy of anti‑weight problems medicines, BMC Drugs (2025). DOI: 10.1186/s12916-025-04200-0. www.biomedcentral.com/articles … 6/s12916-025-04200-0
Quotation:
Anti-obesity medicines related to weight rebound post-treatment (2025, July 21)
retrieved 21 July 2025
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2025-07-anti-obesity-medications-weight-rebound.html
This doc is topic to copyright. Aside from any honest dealing for the aim of personal examine or analysis, no
half could also be reproduced with out the written permission. The content material is supplied for data functions solely.
