Long term use of Phentermine for Weight Loss safe for heart, finds study

Long term use of Phentermine Safe, effective for Weight Loss, finds a study. Patients on phentermine for weight loss for more than three months experience greater weight loss without an increased risk for incident cardiovascular disease or death, according to a study published in Obesity.

Phentermine (Adipex-P, Lomaira) is an amphetamine-like prescription medication used to suppress appetite.It can help weight loss by decreasing your hunger or making you feel full longer. Phentermine is a Schedule IV drug, a classification given to drugs that have a potential for abuse, although the actual potential appears to be low.

Obesity is a medical condition that occurs when a person carries excess weight or body fat that might affect their health. Body mass index (BMI) is a tool that doctors use to assess if a person is at an appropriate weight for their age, sex, and height. The measurement combines height and weight.

A BMI between 25 and 29.9 indicates that a person is carrying excess weight. A BMI of 30 or over suggests that a person may have obesity.

Kristina H. Lewis, M.D., from the Wake Forest School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and colleagues used electronic health record data to identify 13,972 adults (84 percent female and 45 percent white) with a first phentermine prescription between 2010 and 2015. Patients were categorized by duration of use.

Patients had a mean baseline age of 43.5 years and a mean body mass index of 37.8 kg/m². The researchers found that at 24 months, longer-term users of phentermine had more weight loss, with patients using continuously for >12 months losing 7.4 percent more than those who used for no more than three months. There were 41 events of the composite outcome of cardiovascular disease or death (0.3 percent), with no significant difference between the groups.

"For patients who respond to and tolerate it, phentermine may be a safe and affordable way to achieve greater and longer-lasting weight loss, but we need clinical trials to provide more certainty," Lewis said in a statement. "At the moment, there is no change to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration labeling so doctors should use caution with the decision about prescribing it longer term."