Obesity drug use soars by 25 times

Published on Tuesday 31 March 2009 23:10

A PUBLIC health expert has warned that some Scottish doctors are handing out prescriptions for weight-loss drugs "willy-nilly" without proper advice.

The concerns raised by Professor Michael Lean of Glasgow University came as it emerged that their use has multiplied by 25 times in a decade.

The figures produced by the Scottish Government showed more than 110,000 prescriptions were written in 2007-8 for fat-loss drugs, up 6,000 from the year before. This compared to just 4,358 in 1998-9.

It means that the cost of treating obesity has topped 4.5 million, but Prof Lean and other experts have said it is still a price worth paying to prevent more costly conditions developing later on as long as patients are also encouraged to change their lifestyles.

They condemned governments in Holyrood and Westminster for failing to take a lead on changing Scottish culture and tackling the food companies to start to reduce obesity rates.

The statistics have been taken as further evidence of the rapidly growing problem of obesity in Scotland, which now just trails the US for overweight people among countries in the developed world. As things stand, 25 per cent of the adult population in Scotland are obese, ahead of 24 per cent in England and Wales, but a long way behind America's 32.2 per cent.

Politicians yesterday raised concerns that prescribed drugs were being used as a quick way of losing weight ahead of more effective but harder methods, such as dieting and taking more exercise.

Jamie Stone MSP, the Liberal Democrat public health spokesman, said: "Although for some patients prescribed medicine is the only course of action, Liberal Democrats want to see the promotion of healthy living as the centrepiece of our fight against fat."

Mary Scanlon, the Conservative health spokeswoman, added: "We should all be hugely concerned that the number of prescribed items to treat obesity have risen 25-fold in just nine years."

Experts said medication for obesity could end up saving Scotland's health budget millions as well as lives.

Dr Ewan Bell, a consultant in Dumfries and Galloway, who runs a specialist clinic to deal with obesity, said that the drugs involved reduced the chances of people in pre-diabetes conditions from developing full diabetes by 50 per cent.

"I would challenge any politician to find a course of intervention which would have that sort of effect," he said.

Both he and Prof Lean claimed that the two main drugs used – Orlistat, the most common obesity drug, and Sibutramine – were clinically "safer than aspirin" as well as being highly effective.

However, a third drug, Rimonabant, which was prescribed almost 6,000 times in 2007-8, has been withdrawn because of concerns that it may have made patients more suicidal.

Dr Bell said that the medication was only effective along with advice to patients on changing their lifestyle which was followed through with better diets and more exercise.

He raised concerns that one of the weight-loss drugs will soon be available over the counter without a prescription.

"You have to question whether people will get the right advice when they purchase it," he said.

"It will be pretty ineffective without that."

But Prof Lean also hit out at some doctors who he accused of already providing weight-loss drugs "willy-nilly" without providing the proper advice and back up.

"It is a complete waste of taxpayers' money and people's time," he said.

He went on to attack politicians for failing to provide leadership over lifestyle choices, particularly diets.

"They have not taken on the food companies properly," he said. "People are pouring fat down their throats, especially with ready meals, some of which contain 900 calories, but the government is not taking them on properly."

A Holyrood spokesman said: "The Scottish Government recognises that obesity is a increasing problem and poses a serious threat to long-term health. For this reason we are investing 56 million over the next three years in a range of initiatives to improve diet, increase physical activity and tackle unhealthy weight."

'We should be helping people not to get fat in the first place'

PRESCRIPTIONS for drugs to help people lose weight have risen substantially in recent years. But these drugs should only be taken when other options have been exhausted, writes Tam Fry.

Before you even start to think about taking drugs, you should be doing the best that you can to lose weight in a normal, ordinary and healthy fashion. That is by having a healthy lifestyle, with good eating and exercise.

Only then should come the option of drugs. But unfortunately so many people find it difficult to lose weight in a normal way that prescriptions for these drugs are going to go up and up.

What would be absolutely tragic is if GPs are taking the prescription of drugs as an easy option as this is ruinous to the health service and it is not the total answer because pill popping never was.

We know that losing weight is never easy. When you are overweight, it is that much harder to exercise. Exercise becomes more difficult the heavier you are.

What we should be doing is helping people as much as possible to not become fat in the first place. We should be better at regulating what goes into our food so that there is not so many unhealthy elements to our diet, such as high amounts of fat, sugar and salt.

We should also be looking at the labelling of food in a more rigorous fashion so unhealthy foods are well signposted so that people who are trying to lose weight will keep away from them.

&#149 Tam Fry is chairman of the Child Growth Foundation and a National Obesity Forum board member.