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Metformin plus lifestyle changes may help lower obese teens’ weight.

By Jeremy Cockerill | February 4, 2010

Metformin plus lifestyle changes may help lower obese teens’ weight.
HealthDay (2/1, Dotinga) reported that, according to a study published in the February issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, “metformin plus lifestyle changes might play a role in obesity treatment.” Researchers randomized “77 fat adolescents, aged 13 to 18″ to placebo or to “a daily dose of 2,000 milligrams of metformin XR.”

WebMD (2/1, Warner) reported, “The results showed that the BMI of teens who received metformin in addition to lifestyle changes decreased 0.9 after 48 weeks’ study, compared to a 0.2 increase in the placebo group,” a difference that investigators “say…persisted for up to six months after” participants “stopped taking the drug.”

MedPage Today (2/1, Smith) reported that after “nearly two years of treatment and follow-up, the drug was associated with a statistically significant drop in body mass index,” but “appeared to have no effect on many other aspects of obesity, including fat distribution and insulin resistance.”