U. doctors discover effective combination of medication and lifestyle modification to help obese women lose weight

Subjects treated with fenfluramine and phentermine and short individual counseling sessions lost as much weight as those who participated in longer group therapy sessions. Subjects treated with fenfluramine and phentermine and short individual counseling sessions lost as much weight as those who participated in longer group therapy sessions.Shannon BurkeSubjects treated with fenfluramine and phentermine and short individual counseling sessions lost as much weight as those who participated in longer group therapy sessions.Shannon BurkeThe Summer Pennsylvanian The findings -- which were published in the May 1997 issue of Obesity Research -- are based on a study involving 26 obese women. The subjects were treated for one year with the weight loss medications fenfluramine and phentermine, commonly known as fen-phen. They attended either 10 individual sessions with physicians or 32 group meetings which focused on lifestyle modification. Most of the women weighed an average of 215 pounds at the start of the study, and they lost an average of 30 pounds with a year of treatment. "Results of this preliminary study suggest that physicians can effectively treat their overweight patients by the combination of medication and brief lifestyle counseling," said Thomas Wadden, director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program and lead author of the study. "We were surprised but pleased to find that medication plus brief physician counseling was as effective as medication plus more intensive group behavior modification," Wadden added. "These very encouraging results await replication in a larger study." Wadden explained that the research was designed as a follow-up to the 1992 study which popularized the fen-phen combination for weight loss. In that study, patients who received medication in combination with 14 groups sessions on lifestyle modification lost an average of 31 pounds in 34 weeks. "We wondered whether the group behavior modification sessions were necessary for successful weight loss since we knew that most physicians would not be able to provide such group treatment," Wadden said. As a result, Wadden and is colleagues developed a new treatment plan in which patients received diet and exercise instruction from a physician during 10 brief, individual visits. Physicians used the LEARN Program for Weight Control -- a manual developed by Yale University psychologist Kelly Brown. Patients selected for group therapy received identical materials but went over them during a series of 32 group sessions with nutritionists which lasted 75 minutes each. "The results of the physician counseling were very successful," co-author and professor of psychiatry Robert Berkowitz explained. "We hope that doctors in primary care practice will be able to achieve comparable results by using an approach similar to the one that we tested." Two previous studies have demonstrated that weight loss treatment is twice as effective when combined with lifestyle modification counseling. "Weight loss medications make it easier for overweight individuals to eat a low-fat, low-calorie diet, but people will achieve the best results if they combine medication with their own efforts to change eating and exercise habits," Wadden said.