Bupropion aka Wellbutrin is an anti-anxiety/depression drug and Naltrexone is an alcohol and drug dependency (opioids) drug. Put them both together and we have another useless diet drug: Contrave
Ignoring the stupid and fat hating graphic of this article (A fat head eats a hamburger but resists pills), the author tries to figure out why people are not flocking to take Contrave or the other diet drugs on the market. (Except sales are projected to be 200 million)
Maybe people don't want to take diet drugs because you know heart valve disease and primary pulmonary hypertension.
Much of the resistance to the weight-loss medications stems from the disastrous safety record of diet drugs pulled from the market in the 1990s.
Or maybe it just doesn't work.
In clinical trials, for example, nondiabetic patients taking Contrave lost only 4.1 percent more weight than those taking placebos
Or maybe it has crazy side effects and a black box warning
The diet pill Contrave can also cause seizures, raise blood pressure and heart rates
CONTRAVE can cause serious side effects of suicidal thoughts or actions…(Read the entire three paragraph warning if you want at the Contrave website.)
Or maybe you still have to diet while using it.
All patients received lifestyle modification that consisted of a reduced- calorie diet and regular physical activity
Or perhaps there are no long term studies that Contrave causes you to be thin forever. The original study ran for only one year.
Or perhaps it works on the flawed presumption that all fat people are fat because we eat too much.
So Contrave is of the same bullshit as any other diet drug. It doesn’t really work in the long run and barely works in the short. My only hope is that it doesn’t kill people like Fen-Phen and Meridia.
Actually, as someone who has taken the combination of Wellbutrin and Naltrexone with extremely positive results, Contrave is not a 'diet' pill. Conversely, it removes the assumption that obesity is the fault of the patient for 'eating too much' or 'having no self control when it comes to food'. Instead it targets endocrinal problems, which are the root of the issue in the body. This drug is not for the average person who wants to lose a few pounds. It's for people with real weight problems.
You know as well as I that we are (or in my case, was) not fat because we couldn't put down the donuts and refused to exercise. There is a fundamental, biological problem that causes obesity and no amount of dieting is going to fix it. We either need to find the source of the issue (most likely environmental toxins, food industry hormones, etc) or find a solution via medication. Just because dieting doesn't work (and it DOESN'T) does not mean that there is no other solution. It just means that, perhaps, it's not our fault.
As for the side effects, while they should be taken seriously, their rate of occurrence should also be considered. Bupropion (Welbutrin) is an antidepressant and therefore comes with a suicide warning, as do all antidepressants. However, it should be noted that it is not an SSRI, but rather a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor. It can cause seizures, so, LIKE ALL MEDICATIONS, you should consult with your doctor before taking, but that should not preclude the drug from consideration. Almost all prescription drugs have dangerous, though unlikely, side effects.
As someone who's had so little success with diets, it makes me sad to see this drug so quickly knocked.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 09, 2014 at 11:16 AM