[Effectiveness of serotonergic agonists in the treatment of obese patients].

OBJECTIVE

To compare the effectiveness of two interventions in the treatment of obese patients: hypocaloric diet and hypocaloric diet plus serotoninergic medication.

DESIGN

Randomised clinical trial.

SETTING

Primary Care. Out-patient Endocrinology clinic.

PATIENTS

The trial included 60 obese adults, assigned at random to two groups of 30 each. Both groups were comparable for sex, age, weight and Body Mass Index. Weight controls were performed at 2, 4 and 6 months.

RESULTS

There were no significant differences in weight losses at the times studied (2, 4 and 6 months) between the Control (Hypocaloric diet) and Study (Hypocaloric diet plus medication) groups. There were significant weight losses in both groups analysed between 2 and 4 months, with a Body Mass Index which went down from 36.2 to 34.12 and from 35.52 to 33.57 (p < 0.001) in the Control and Study groups, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

No significant differences were observed in the results obtained for obese patients between a hypocaloric diet supplemented by serotoninergic medication and a hypocaloric diet.