Sibutramine may help some kids with obesity

The appetite-suppressing drug sibutramine (Meridia, Reductil) appears to promote weight loss in children with obesity that is not lifestyle related, according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Previous reports have shown that simple counseling and other behavioral interventions are not particularly useful in promoting weight loss among children with hormone-related obesity or other types that are not tied to their lifestyle, Dr. Claude Marcus and colleagues from Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden, note.

They conducted a two-phase study of sibutramine treatment in such children. In the first phase, the children and the researchers were initially unaware who received sibutramine and who received inactive "placebo". In the second "open-label" phase, all of the subjects received (and were aware they received) sibutramine.

A total of 45 patients completed the first phase, and 42 were included in the final study. Of the 45 patients, 24 received placebo initially and thereafter sibutramine and 21 received sibutramine initially.

Weight loss occurred when the subjects were given sibutramine and not when they received placebo, the report indicates.

In the open-label phase, the reduction in weight continued, and the pattern of weight loss was similar in children who had received the placebo and those who were treated with sibutramine, Marcus and colleagues report.

The authors note that the treatment was well tolerated. "However," they advise, "because no long-term sibutramine studies are available in children...caution is warranted."

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, November 2007.