Systematic review of clinical outcomes of anorexigenic treatment of obesity

Abstract

Introduction: Obesity and its comorbidities are a public health burden that currently affects more than 2.0 billion people, affecting approximately 19% of women and 14% of men worldwide. Anti-obesity medications modify the biological processes that affect appetite and significantly improve outcomes such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Objective: This was to develop a systematic review to present the main clinical results of using anorectic drugs to treat obesity and its comorbidities. Methods: The systematic review rules of the PRISMA Platform were followed. The search was conducted from March to April 2025 in the Scopus, Embase, PubMed, Science Direct, Scielo, and Google Scholar databases. The quality of the studies was based on the GRADE instrument and the risk of bias was analyzed according to the Cochrane instrument. Results and Conclusion: 107 articles were found. A total of 42 articles were fully evaluated and 30 were included and developed in the present systematic review study. Considering the Cochrane tool for risk of bias, the overall assessment resulted in 06 studies with a high risk of bias and 29 studies that did not meet GRADE and AMSTAR-2. Most studies presented homogeneity in their results, with X2=85.7%>50%. It was concluded, based on randomized clinical studies in recent years, that anorectic anti-obesity drugs associated with lifestyle change therapies are effective in weight loss and improvement of comorbidities. Furthermore, studies have shown that the combination of anti-obesity medicines and lifestyle intervention enables greater results in weight loss and maintenance of lost weight.