Last Updated on Sunday, 19 July 2009 12:39
If a diet pill was guaranteed to make you lose weight but produced a 40% chance of adverse psychological effects - would you still take it?
Obesity is fast becoming a norm in our world – Alarming but true. According to UK government statistics, one in four men and one in three women are overweight. The increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight is indeed cause for concern and certainly needs to be addressed, as they pose a threat to the vital organs of our body, especially the heart. But at what price?
The pressures of modern lifestyle and demanding society norms prompt most of us to take the easy way out. We no longer think twice before popping a pill for the simplest symptom or ailment. Sure, modern technology has made our life easier and faster, but have we started accepting every new invention blindly without thinking twice? Case in question – the innumerable quick fix diet pills on the roll.
We’d all love a magic potion that’ll reverse all our foodie transgressions! In fact, drug companies spend millions chasing this dream. But how safe is it to take a diet pill – If a diet pill was guaranteed to make you lose weight but produced 40% adverse psychological effects would you still take it? Would you be willing to sacrifice one vital organ for another? These are exactly the kind of issues you’ll be facing with some diet pills.
A clinical trial involving the diet drug Rimonabant showed that participants who took the drug lost an average of 9.5 pounds and less than 2 inches from their waists compared to those who got a placebo, who lost an average of about 1 pound and less than a half-inch from their waists. But on the flip side the drug produced no improvement in the health of the coronary arteries and 43% (nearly half) of those who took Rimonabant had adverse psychiatric effects compared with 28% of those who took the placebo. These mental health complaints included mostly anxiety, depression and insomnia. Shockingly, one patient in the Rimonabant group committed suicide.
Another one year study of Taranabant, another diet drug, carried out in 2,502 obese people showed that they lost 9 to 12 pounds. But once again, like the other drugs, the psychiatric side effects noted here were almost 40%.
While Rimonabant is available in Europe and has failed to get an approval in the United States, Taranabant is still under clinical investigations.
Continue to next page: Diet Pills – Legal Ramifications
