Recent research led by UT Southwestern Medical Center has found that anti-obesity medications, particularly semaglutide, can be effective in managing weight regained after bariatric surgery.
The results of this study have been published in the journal Obesity.
Study Background
While bariatric surgery is often chosen as a treatment option by many adults in the United States suffering from obesity, weight regain post-surgery is a common occurrence.
This can further exacerbate obesity-related conditions such as Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease.
Anti-Obesity Medications
In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved two anti-obesity medications: semaglutide (Wegovy), a weekly injection, and liraglutide (Saxenda), a daily injection.
Both medications belong to the same drug class—glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists—and work by controlling appetite and satiety.
Methodology
The study involved analyzing health records of 207 adults who had undergone bariatric surgery and were treated for obesity at UTSW’s Weight Wellness Program between 2015 and 2021.
The patients were, on average, eight years post-surgery and had regained more than 40% of the weight they had initially lost after their bariatric procedures.
Data was analyzed from patients who had been prescribed weight management regimens containing either semaglutide or liraglutide for at least three months.
Key Findings
The results demonstrated that patients taking semaglutide lost an average of 12.9% of their body weight after 12 months, whereas those taking liraglutide lost an average of 8.8% of their body weight.
Moreover, individuals in the semaglutide group were more than twice as likely to have lost at least 10% of their body weight.
Significance of the Study
Jaime Almandoz, M.D., the study’s senior author and Associate Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology at UTSW, emphasized the significance of the results:
“Our research found that newer anti-obesity medications are effective for treating weight regain and optimizing body weight after bariatric surgery.
Our results support the real-world effectiveness of GLP-1 receptor agonists for treating post-bariatric weight recurrence and suggest that semaglutide is superior to liraglutide.”
This finding could help inform the use of these drugs in optimizing body weight management after bariatric surgery.
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The study was published in Obesity.
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