CHICAGO — The use of metformin for weight loss in nondiabetic, obese adolescents—a practice that is becoming increasingly popular—produces about a 6- to 7-pound loss over 1 year, according to a study presented at the annual scientific sessions of the American Diabetes Association.
“My conclusion from this study is that metformin XR [extended release] provides a modest weight benefit in obese, nondiabetic adolescents over 1 year of treatment,” Dr. Darrell Wilson, chief of pediatric endocrinology at Lucile M. Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford, Calif., said.
The study randomized 77 patients with a body mass index (BMI) above the 95th percentile to either extended-release metformin or placebo. Their average BMI was 36 kg/m
Seventy percent of the patients (27 in each group) were followed for the entire 52 weeks of the trial.
Over 1 year, the average BMI of the placebo-treated patients rose slightly, while that of the metformin-treated patients decreased. However, there was considerable overlap of weight loss and gain among the subjects in the two groups, and though the study was designed with the assumption that the difference in average BMI between the two groups would be about 1.5 kg/m
The magnitude of that loss was equal to about 6–7 pounds for a child whose height is 65 inches.
The trial was conducted by the Glaser Pediatric Research Network at five separate centers, and the medication and placebo were donated by Bristol-Myers-Squibb.
The magnitude of that loss was equal to about 6–7 pounds for a child whose height is 65 inches. DR. WILSON