Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines For The Pharmacological Treatment of Obesity

Last week, the US Endocrine Society released a rather comprehensive set of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the pharmacological management of obesity, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

The recommendations in the 21-page document follow the rather rigorous Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) group (from 0 to 4 stars) and goes beyond just evaluating the evidence in favour of pharmacological treatment of obesity itself but also for the pharmacological treatment of overweight and obese individuals presenting other medical conditions.

Here are the (in my opinion) most important recommendations from this document:

1) While diet, exercise and behavioural interventions are recommended in all patients with obesity,

“Drugs may amplify adherence to behavior change and may improve physical functioning such that increased physical activity is easier in those who cannot exercise initially. Patients who have a history of being unable to successfully lose and maintain weight and who meet label indications are candidates for weight loss medications.(****)”

2) “If a patient’s response to a weight loss medication is deemed effective (weight loss > 5% of body weight at 3 mo) and safe, we recommend that the medication be continued. If deemed ineffective (weight loss < 5% at 3 mo) or if there are safety or tolerability issues at any time, we recommend that the medication be discontinued and alternative medications or referral for alternative treatment approaches be considered. (****)”

3) “If medication for chronic obesity management is prescribed as adjunctive therapy to comprehensive life- style intervention, we suggest initiating therapy with dose escalation based on efficacy and tolerability to the recommended dose and not exceeding the upper approved dose boundaries. (**)”

The guidelines also make specific recommendations for the pharmacological treatment of overweight and obese individuals presenting with a wide range of other medical issues, including 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), cardiovascular disease, psychiatric illness, epilepsy, rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, HIV/AIDS and allergies.

For example:

“In patients with T2DM who are overweight or obese, we suggest the use of antidiabetic medications that have additional actions to promote weight loss (such as glucagon-like peptide-1 [GLP-1] analogs or sodium-glu- cose-linked transporter-2 [SGLT-2] inhibitors), in addi- tion to the first-line agent for T2DM and obesity, metformin. (***)”

The guidelines also discuss the pros and cons of the anti-obesity medications currently available in the US (phentermine, orlistat, phentermine/topiramate, lorcaserin, buproprion/naltrexone, and liraglutide), which we can only hope will soon also become available to patients outside the US.

The entire document is available here.

@DrSharma
Edmonton, AB