Primarily intended for physicians and health care professionals who are treating obese patients, this book explores current and future options for drug treatment of obesity puts them into perspective against available alternative treatments. Distinguished scientists and clinical investigators provide reviews of each individual topic, covering a wide range of subjects from pathophysiology of obesity to the benefits of weight loss. The core sections on pharmacotherapy deal with currently available drugs and drugs in pre-clinical development, complemented with sections on non-drug treatment and general therapeutic aspects to provide an integrated view of therapeutic approaches to the treatment of obesity and its associated syndromes.

Approximately 500,000 people in North America and Western Europe die from obesity-related diseases every year. This figure can only increase as efforts to stem this tide lag behind the rise of the overweight population. In the West especially, though by no means exclusively, the associated cost in human lives and suffering is accompanied by an increased strain on healthcare budgets. Partly for this reason, the biomedical community is looking beyond lifestyle changes to search for a drug or drugs that can tackle the problem. A number of potential candidates have come and gone, and still the current level of research into the pharmacotherapy of obesity is unprecedented. Pharmacotherapy of Obesity looks at the drugs currently available and those in development, exploring their mechanisms of action and their best use in the patient. However, this volume also looks at non-drug therapies, exercise regimes, surgery, behavioral treatment and alternative techniques such as acupuncture. The book closes with a look at the contribution that genomics is making to the search for new drugs, and looks ahead to what such drugs might be like. Produced by leading experts in the field, Pharmacotherapy of Obesity provides an essential, multi-disciplinary view of the treatment of obesity. It is ideal for anyone involved in obesity management, whether clinical or research-based, and for researchers in pharmacology, physiology, or the pharmaceutical industry.