STATUS AND PROSPECT OF DRUGS FOR OVEREATING

Abstract

A unified statement on the pharmacotherapy of obesity is difficult to make, largely because, even as a symptom—to say nothing of it as a syndrome, obesity implies neither a specific disturbance in physiological function nor a specific physical abnormality; rather, it is a consequence of a variety of nonrelated etiological factors. There is only one feature common to most instances of obesity, that of caloric intake in excess of normal energy requirements. Since this discrepancy provides both a clear and a tangible point of attack, it is the usual target.¹Hence, rather than to consider the effect of drugs in obesity, it is more realistic as well as more practical to consider the drugs at hand for controlling overeating. Although studies in the laboratory and observations of animals in their natural environment have not elucidated the appetite mechanism, they seem to indicate adequate natural homeostatic arrangements to relate appetite