Only very few long-term (2 years)
intervention studies have been performed
with regard to the pharmacological treatment
of obesity. Recently, the 4-year
study of the effect of Xenical on weight
loss and development of diabetes was
published (14). This extra weight loss obtained
with orlistat in this trial was rather
similar to the results obtained in the
present study after 3 years. Moreover, recent
systematic reviews of pharmacotherapy
for weight loss including obese
patients and obese patients with type 2
diabetes—without an initial VLED—
show that the additional weight loss induced
by orlistat was from 2.6 to 3.2 kg
after 1 year of treatment (13,16,17).
With regard to changes in metabolic
risk factors, the orlistat group had a
nonsignificant tendency to better out