Bupropion SR, an anti-depressant and smoking cessation drug, could potentially expand its therapeutic role to include treatment of obesity, according to a recent study by Medical Center researchers.
Dr. Kishore Gadde, an assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Medical Center, said members of the drug group lost four times more weight than their counterparts in the placebo group.
"The results were much more promising than we initially expected," said Gadde, who presented the results at an American Psychiatric Association conference late last month.
Conducted over a period of eight weeks, the double-blind study included 50 non-depressed, obese women between the ages of 21 and 53.
All the women in the study were placed on a restricted, 1,600-calorie diet and adhered to similar exercise patterns.
Among the women who completed the trial, 67 percent of those in the drug group lost more than 5 percent of their body weight, compared to 15 percent of those who were in the placebo group.
Gadde speculated that bupropion makes people feel satisfied after eating less.
Although the specific way the drug treats obesity is unknown, researchers believe it does not have any negative affects on heart rate.
"We must first conduct larger studies in order to arrive at any conclusions about the future of bupropion in treating obesity," he said.
"Right now, we cannot say with great certainty that the drug will benefit most people."
Gadde plans to test a larger group of people-between 400 and 1,000-before reaching any definitive conclusion.
Dr. John Markowitz, a psychiatry professor at Cornell University, warned that researchers must be careful when they use anti-depressants to treat other biological problems.
"Researchers must take into consideration that depression and other mental and physical disorders often overlap," he said.
"Since many obese patients are also depressed, future studies [of bupropion] must also examine the effects of the drug in depressed patients who are also obese."
Even in the current stages of research, however, certain characteristics of bupropion are making researchers optimistic about the potential expansion of its areas of treatment.
"Bupropion SR does not seem to have any adverse affects on patients, and experience with the drug shows that the likelihood of unexpected side effects is low," said Marcia Valenstein, clinical instructor of psychiatry at University of Michigan.
"The pilot study conducted at Duke University could be very important if it can be replicated in larger studies," she said.
Gadde's larger study is in its preliminary stages and will continue through the summer.
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