From Mike Schachter, Imperial College School of Medicine
I was rather perplexed by your editorial on appetite-modifying therapies (21 May, p 5). The implication that this is a novel approach is quite incorrect.
Sibutramine, one of the two drugs licensed in the UK at the moment as aids to weight loss, is certainly an appetite suppressant, though it has moderate rather than spectacular efficacy. But the history of appetite-reducing drugs goes back many decades. Amphetamine and related stimulants such as phentermine and ephedrine were used in the 1950s and still are, though often without medical approval because of their addictive potential and other side effects.
More recently compounds have been used for the same purpose, targeting the brain’s serotonin systems. These drugs, fenfluramine and dexfenfluramine, were found to cause a different set of problems, including damage to heart valves.
Anti-ghrelin vaccines and endocannabinoid receptor blockers are simply the latest items in a long sequence. One must hope that they prove more successful than their predecessors.
Advertisement
London, UK
