Effects of liraglutide plus phentermine in adults with obesity following 1 year of treatment by liraglutide alone: A randomized placebo-controlled pilot trial
Open accessAbstract
Background This pilot study evaluated whether adding phentermine to liraglutide would induce further weight loss in participants who had previously lost weight with liraglutide alone.Subjects/methods Participants were 45 adults with obesity (75.6% female, 55.6% white, body mass index = 34.3 ± 4.7 kg/m 2) who had lost an average of 12.6 ± 6.8% of initial weight during a prior 1-year randomized trial with liraglutide and intensive behavioral treatment. Participants were re-randomized, in a double-blinded fashion, to liraglutide 3.0 mg plus phentermine 15.0 mg (liraglutide-phentermine) or liraglutide plus placebo (liraglutide-placebo). Participants also were provided with four, 15-minute counseling sessions during the 12-week extension study.Results At week 12, the liraglutide-phentermine and liraglutide-placebo groups lost a mean (±SEM) of 1.6 ± 0.6% and 0.1 ± 0.5% of re-randomization weight, respectively (p = 0.073). Two (9.1%) liraglutide-phentermine participants and one (4.3%) liraglutide-placebo participant lost ≥5% of re-randomization weight; 19 (86.4%) and 16 (69.9%) participants, respectively, maintained their full weight loss achieved in the prior 1-year trial (p = 0.125). Liraglutide-phentermine participants generally reported larger reductions in hunger and food preoccupation than liraglutide-placebo participants during the first 8 weeks of the extension study.Conclusions The combination of liraglutide and phentermine appeared to be well-tolerated but did not produce additional clinically meaningful weight loss in individuals who had already lost 12.6% of initial weight with liraglutide alone.Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02911818.
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The combination of liraglutide and phentermine did not provide additional, clinically meaningful weight reduction in individuals who had already lost ∼13% of their initial weight with liraglutide alone.
“The combination of liraglutide and phentermine did not provide additional, clinically meaningful weight reduction in individuals who had already lost ∼13% of their initial weight with liraglutide alone [117].”
From Anti-Obesity Medications and Investigational Agents: An Obesity Medicine Association (OMA) Clinical Practice Statement (CPS) 2022 (2022) · cites this paper as [117]
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- Authors
- Tronieri, J. S., Wadden, T. A., Walsh, O. A., Berkowitz, R. I., Alamuddin, N., Gruber, K., Leonard, S., & Chao, A. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (US)
- Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland - Bahrain (BH)
- Corresponding author
- Tronieri, Jena Shaw
- ORCID
- Venue
- Metabolism
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-07
- Volume
- 96
- Pages
- 83-91
- ISSN
- 0026-0495 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6571049
- OpenAlex
- W2924186795
- Cited by
- 29
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Metabolism (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- Novo Nordisk
- National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (K23DK116935)
- National Institutes of Health
- National Institute of Nursing Research (K23NR017209)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Pharmacology and Obesity Treatment
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Bariatric Surgery and Outcomes
- Keywords
- liraglutide, phentermine, obesity, weight loss, combination therapy, weight loss maintenance, hunger, food preoccupation, GLP-1 receptor agonists, appetite suppressants, behavioral counseling
- MeSH terms
- Liraglutide, Adult, Aged, Appetite, Appetite Depressants, Double-Blind Method, Drug Therapy, Combination, Female, Humans, Hunger, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Phentermine, Pilot Projects, Weight Loss, Treatment Outcome, Anti-Obesity Agents
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