(RxWiki News) While some drugs work well on their own, patients sometimes see better results from taking multiple drugs.
Researchers have found that a combination of two already approved pharmaciutical medications helps obese people shed pounds.
Researchers wanted to see if combining phentermine with topiramate (Topamax) would help overweight and obese people lose as much as 10 percent of their body weight, which reduced their risk of obesity-related conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure.
"Taking phentermine plus Topamax can help obese people lose weight."
For their one-year study, Dr. Kishore M. Gadde, from Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues assigned 2,487 overweight or obese individuals to take one of three drug treatments for one year. The first group of patients took a placebo.
The second group took 7.5 mg of phentermine plus 46 mg of topiramate. The third group took 15 mg of phentermine and 92 mg of topiramate.
At the end of the study, patients in the second group (the lower dosage of phentermine plus topiramate) lost almost 8 percent of their body weight.
Patients in the third group (the higher dosage) lost nearly 10 percent of their body weight. In contrast, those who took the placebo lost only 1.2 percent of their body weight.
Some side effects of the drug combination included dry mouth, paraesthesia (tingling or prickling), constipation, insomnia, and dizziness. Some patients also experienced symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Despite these side effects, these results show that phentermine plus topiramate is an effective treatment for obesity. If the drug combination is approved, doctors can easily prescribe the new treatment to their patients who are struggling to lose weight.
