Comparative Efficiency and Safety of Pharmacological Approaches to the Management of Obesity

Obesity and overweight are reachingglobal epidemic proportions affect-ing more than 1.1 billion individu-als worldwide. Excess weight is associated with an increased mortality, chronic mor-bidity (including type 2 diabetes, arterial hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers), decreased quality of life, and considerable health care costs (1). Antiobesity drugs work through dif-ferent mechanisms either in the central nervous system (CNS) or in the periph-eral tissues. These mechanisms include: 1) suppression of food intake in the CNS, 2) decreased gut absorption of nutrients, and 3) increased energy expenditure or oxidation of nutrients. The efficacy of