Why Is Amphetamine No Longer Used For Weight Loss?
It is just because of the abuse potential, because I’m sure it’s not that bad. Used for weight loss, it probably would be more effective and easy than any other treatment. I can’t believe they’d rather cut you open and mess with your stomach instead of just give you a prescription for amphetamine. I take the stuff for ADHD and it doesn’t seem like anything anybody would want to abuse.
October 13th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Amphetamine is an appetite suppressant of the phentermine and phenethylamine class. There are many prescription diet pills on the market as well including the popular and most commonly prescribed prescription appetite suppressant Phentermine. It is sold under the brand names: Lon amine and Adipex. These supplements, like most others, suppress the appetite and stimulate the central nervous system. Keep in mind that each diet pill has its own set of potential side effects. Many, especially stimulant-based diet pills, are habit-forming and lend themselves to abuse. Abuse of these drugs may lead to psychological and/or physical dependence.
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October 14th, 2009 at 3:10 am
But the potential for abuse and for diversion is that great. Also, neither amphetamines nor any of the currently used amphetamine-like drugs have ever been shown to help with long-term weight control. There’s all that risk, and the benefit is only a temporary weight reduction at best.
Your experience may lead you to think nobody would want to abuse the things, and I feel the same way about narcotics and several other drugs of abuse; nonetheless, there are all sorts of people in the world, and a lot of them are indeed “speed freaks.”
October 14th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Fen-Phen (fenfluramine & phentermine (an amphetamine)) was used for weight loss until it was pulled from the market due to a high incidence of people developing primary or secondary pulmonary hypertension. This is when the left ventricle of the heart stops working correctly and leaks fluid into the lungs, which is called pulmonary edema.
This happens because of intense stress put on the heart from the activation of the heart’s serotonin receptors from the fenfluramine in combination with the significant increase in blood pressure caused by phentermine. Primary pulmonary hypertension is a death sentence. Secondary can be treated, but it is still very taxing on the system. Obese individuals are in bad health anyways, so they are more likely to have progressed into primary pulmonary hypertension by the time they sought out treatment, and soon die.
This brought about a flood of class-action lawsuits and finger-pointing within the FDA trying to figure out who was to blame for saying this medication was suitable for anybody to take. This leads to the answer of your question, and it is liability, and also money. Pure dextro-amphetamine would be great for weight-loss, but nobody wants to be liable for prescribing a substance that causes significant increases in blood pressure to an obese person who is more likely to suffer complications.
Now, to the money side. Dextro-amphetamine has been available as a generic medicine for a very long time. Phentermine is still prescribed and it is an amphetamine that can be bought in generic form. Meridia (sibutramine) is an amphetamine that is prescribed heavily now for weight loss. It is not available in generic form. Go figure!
Yes, plain old dextro-amphetamine is a tried-and-true medication for weight-loss, but the fear of being sued and the temptation to make money by prescribing only name brand medications tend to influence the doctors who write the prescriptions.
October 14th, 2009 at 8:45 am
John de Witt makes excellent points and there is some bit I would like to add:
Abuse -IS- that much an issue, and it is that effective.
it doesn’t work. Pharmacological management of obesity has never had spectacular success rates, ever, studies on most interventions show that they add, consistently, a very tiny amount when added to diet and exercise regime – when they’re used in perfect situations they result in a net loss of a few extra pounds. That’s provided you’re not treating some sort of condition like hypothyroidism that causes weight gain. The development of a successful, safe means of dealing with obesity from a pharmacological standpoint has been a pipe dream for decades – and it hasn’t stayed a pipe dream because people aren’t trying.
Studies on bariatric surgeries typically put the weight loss in the first year at up to 75lbs of body fat, though it varies quite a bit by intervention. By comparison, the single most effective weightloss medication ever developed resulted in an average loss of 8 lbs over one year of use, at the price of severe side effects. That’s why bariatric surgery is used.
October 14th, 2009 at 10:37 am
1.) It does cause you to loose a lot of weight in the short term, but long term studies show people gain back all of the weight they lost.
2.) It causes high blood pressure, high heart rate, and heart palpitations. Since overweight people often have high blood pressure and are at high risk for heart disease, that is a problem.
3.) Yes, it really is that adictive. Amphetamines are among the most addictive substances known to man.
I knew a couple people who have had bad experiences with ADD meds. One person I knew in college got two ADHD prescriptions from two different doctors. He was a mess. Another person I knew took them as directed (with some other medicines) and developed kidney damage they attributed to the ADD meds.
October 14th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
People abusing it is not the only reason– There is a whole other list of negative side-effects noted in many past patients. Most of these deal with psychological changes. Problems with anxiety, mood, sexual disfunction, and sleep.
October 14th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Yes it IS very addictive. Haven’t you heard of “meth’? (aka, methamphetamine)
Many morbidly obese patients have significant heart disease. Stimulants like amphetamine can be very dangerous in these people.