[Pharmacotherapy of obesity].

Obesity is a chronic disease with a worldwide increasing incidence. The mainstay of therapy consists in modification of behaviour related to obesity such as overeating and physical inactivity. When these life-style modifying attempts fail, the use of anti-obesity drugs is warranted. The two available drugs, orlistat and sibutramine, are capable of reducing body weight by 10%. Failure of these medications in a subset of patients to achieve adequate weight loss and limited overall efficacy have led to an extensive research on novel anti-obesity agents. This review presents an overview on the current drugs available as well as on potential future candidates.