This is interesting information--but I still think that if the FDA approves it, there's nothing morally wrong with the company making money from selling this product. The side-effects will have to be advertised, just like every other drug, and it is from there that people and their doctors will have to make the decision.

Lots of medications cause allergic or averse reactions in small percentages of patients. The improvement in the mass percentage of patients' lives does seem worth it, especially if doctors and patients are aware of the risks and monitor their reactions closely so that people who feel bad side-effects are taken off the medication.

I was one of the 'victims' of childhood anti-depressants (I'm now 21), which in the first couple weeks of dosing took the passive hate of my life and turned it into an active desire and ability to commit suicide. However, I had a good doctor and parents who understood the risks, the 'thought' effects of the medication soon caught up with the 'energy' effects, and I had the energy to do positive things, instead of only having the energy to do the things my depressed mind wanted. I do support there being a better label warning on these medications as prescribed to children, but I would never withhold medicine from sick kids.

I think the real issue is the victim culture we've created in the US, by making products and companies the solution and the responsible party for our problems. As long as the company, the FDA label, and doctors are open about the risks, it's our decision whether to take the risk of the medication, and our personal responsibility to take care of ourselves and our bodies. It's frustrating to me to see sometimes decent products get taken off the market because consumers want to blame companies for their own lack of listening and common sense. (Of course, companies who manufacture medicines and other products that to their knowledge are improperly or misleadingly labeled should be sued and the regulated products should be re-reviewed. My thoughts are mainly about cases like recent smokers suing the tobacco companies, or McDonald's customers suing for being overweight/unhealthy.)

Phew. Had to have someone get me a ladder to come down from that horse.

I think it's a symptom of modern society...we want a magic pill for everything and don't want to take any responsibility. I was diagnosed with depression a few years ago and my doctor told me I could go on Prozac, but that it had some side effects. I decided against it and did cognitive therapy instead, which worked wonders for me. A lot of conditions out there can be helped naturally without the use of dangerous medications. There are exceptions, but I think doctors are getting lazier...they'll just prescribe whatever pill that will make the patient happy. The side effects of Accomplia seem quite frightening, actually. I think if I had to choose between being neurotic and depressed and thin vs. a few pounds overweight and happy, I'd choose the latter. But some people just want to be thin, no matter what. I guess they will be the ones that will take Accomplia and suffer the side effects.

I guess my thought was that the side effects were only happening to a small percentage of the participants, so for those who felt okay the medicine was good.

And, while I agree that doctors are pretty quick to whip out the prescription pads for everything (even things, like colds, that we medically have no treatment for), I think that with the open availability of information about medications and their uses and side-effects on the internet, library, and even TV commercials and magazines, that the patient needs to take some responsibility in realizing what he is putting into his body. Even having a little chat with the doctor about what exactly the medicine does and what possible side-effects there are could prevent many bad patient experiences.

It would be nice if every doctor forced this conversation as a matter of course, but we know they won't, and should act on our cynicism about the medical community to protect and educate ourselves instead of blaming doctors who are only trying to make us better and give us what we want.

Joker, you're hitting the nail on the head for me, thanks! I really like what you're saying.

Another thing that bothers me is that a lot of our doctors are bought by the pharmacuetical companies. They get incentives to push their products.

I educate myself via the internet and all that, but again, you can't expect most people to do that. It's not realistic to think that everybody has the means to. There are accessibilty, financial, intectual factors that all need to considered in order for people to gather info.

I just had to comment because it makes me sad to think that we're so desperate to lose weight (myself included until recently). These drugs are so after the fact. We need to address what makes us heavy in the first place. And most importantly accept the hard work it takes to make yourself the weight you want to be. There never can be an easy answer to any of our problems.

I'll leave the more complicated comments up to Joker who expresses my sentiment awesomely (so far anyway).

Does anyone remember the lauren hutton commercials that made menopause seem like a disease. Exposing hormone replacements was my first clue that we are being scammed by big pharma. Other than targeting fear of fat, its all targeting fear of aging. Some things are supposed to happen. I never bought the notion of "treating" menopause, but I have been sold some drugs I probably didn't need, made my own choice not to use them and I'm still here

If you see much daytime television, such as 24 hour news, the drug mass marketing is insane. The tone used is fear. One sounds like a news break-in piece when there's a need to warn of a storm. They use the word warning naming people over a certain age. I think its all very transparent, but millions of people don't read stuff like this site and are not thinking.

I am obese if I dont find some way to take the weight off I will die. At the age of 46 I have tried everything and please dont try and tell me its easy. I quit smoking after 25 yrs that monkey is off my back. I own stock in this company and I plan to purchase this pill to help me. The side effects are mild compare to some that in years done the road destory your liver,kidneys. Nothing is perfect. But America is eating it way to the grave and I like many others have to change are eating habits or face it die early.

If she were that sick and miserable why didn't Carol just stop taking the drug? It sounds like she may have had pre-existing depression in the first place pill or no pill.

I personally believe that this drug will help the majority of people. The reason we are overweight in the first place is because our bodies do not get the *full* signal...If this pill is going to give us the signal...Then I say YEAH!
All prescriptions have side effects...Affecting some more than others...I have suffered dibilitating depression in the past, and currently I am taking a low dose of antidepressant medication...But I truely believe that a big part of my depression is the fact that I am overweight, and not comfortable to express myself fully.
Although I have always struggled with my weight, it has only been in the last 10 years that I would call myself obese...I did not change my eating habits, and eat more...My body changed. If this medication will help me get back to the person I was before becoming discustingly overweight then I am all up to trying it. I do consider myself desperate for help...I do watch what I eat, and do not binge...I get exercize everyday...Yet I gradually keep getting bigger and bigger....Now suffering with type II diabeties...aches and pains all the time, feeling breathless.
WLS is not for me...I am not 100lbs overweight, so I am not considered eligable...And the side effect to that going wrong is death...I would much rather try a pill and see how I respond to it.

A couple opinions here:

1) over 35 and over weight; diet pills will help you out, but they should be in small doses with a good diet and exercise. It is a fact that the metabolism slows down around 35 years old and it becomes harder to lose weight. A little help is great, but don't get lazy! The worse thing you can do is rely soley on a pill! Cut your calories and exercise! Show some self discipline!

2) under 35 and over weight; I guaruntee you're over weight because you're lazy or you don't have a proper diet. I'm a 22 year old male, who's over weight and physically active. How's that? because I don't eat right. It's that simple. At my age, it's easy to lose weight, you just have to exercise and eat right.

The majority of American's are over weight because they're just plain lazy. We have remotes for everything! you don't even have to get out of your car to open the garage door anymore!! That's pathetic! Technology is great, but common! Give the TV a break for a while and go play soccer with your kids, or baseball with the guys, or wander around the mall with your girls. You'll be surprise how much fun you'll have, and I promise the TV will still be there and it's feelings won't be hurt.

Just a few unrelated comments after having read through yours.

It is my understanding that a real breakthrough in weight loss technology has been slow in happening because it is almost impossible to produce an obese labrat. These animals will automatically adjust their excercise to their diets and their metabolism follows. Like Parkinson's desease, the breakthrough could not happen until the problem could be reproduced in a controlled environment for experimental purposes. When scientists discovered that Parkinsonian syndrome could be produced by the effects of alcohol, they made great strides in the medications used to treat the very similar symptoms in Parkinson's Disease.

I look at that as a great discovery science has made in my lifetime. I also note that leprosy is nearly non-existant now. I watch the weight loss news with interest and think, "Why not a magic pill?" We are not lab-rats. We can think critically and be "informed consumers." We all know it isn't really going to be magic, don't we?

Strych9, my comment to you is this: Come back when you have lived as a 50 year old woman, after a drunk driver has plowed into your vehicle and it is a testament to your strong will power that you are actually walking upright at all. You will know by then that there are actually events beyond your will power to control. Hopefully, you will go ahead and use that wonderful willpower now and will never need any other "magic." Meantime, how about giving us a break?

This is complete true. But this information is now public over the internet. Just search on Google:
"Acomplia Safety and Tolerability" and you will find the following information:
"ACOMPLIA should not be initiated in patients with hepatic or renal impairment or patients with uncontrolled serious psychiatric illnesses such as major depression."
Acomplia is not for everyone.

While some people on this diet-blog seem to be a bit preachy and unenlightened, many of you have made some good points. I'm waiting as hard as I can for rimonabant (Acomplia) to be approved here in the U.S. In fact, my internist has already told me that I'm high on his list to receive this medication once it becomes available.

Here's my story: I'm a 52-year-old male who weighs about 270 lbs, with increasing visceral adiposity, which is a fancy term for "beer-gut." Am I the stereotypical American couch-potato? I don't think so. I stopped eating at fast-food burger joints over 20 years ago. I can't remember the last time I watched TV. I stopped keeping a supply of snacks and junk food in the house years ago. However, back then I used to guzzle soda-pop (loaded with lots of corn sweetener) throughout the day and often had a big bowl of ice cream for a "bed-time" snack. But I have long since switched to occasional use of dietic soda-pop and no more ice cream (or beer) in the house. I eat low-fat, low-salt meals with plenty of veggies, very little red meat and sugarfree desserts (usually Jell-O). I "power-walk" around my housing complex almost every day (about 2 miles in 25 minutes) and go out dancing about once every 2 weeks.

Trouble is, I'm almost constantly hungry. Some people tell me that increased physical activity reduces their hunger. Well, I'm happy for them, but it doesn't work that way for me. I try to satisfy the munchies by using things like granola bars instead of ice cream and such, thinking that the fiber will be beneficial. But I tend to eat too many in order to get the same feeling of satiation. This gives me diarrhea and then I have to take an OTC medication (loperamide) to counteract that problem. More pills.

Speaking of medications, it annoys me when it sounds like someone is saying that we shouldn't swallow pills instead of making lifestyle changes--like it's strictly an either/or thing. Why not use both to get the best results? Especially when one is in a situation where it is currently not possible to make enough lifestyle changes to do any good. Here's what I'm talking about: This is 2006, not 1806. I'm not walking behind a plow on a farm field all day--I sit behind a desk in an office all day. I often use the men's room at the other end of the building just to have an excuse to get up and walk somewhere. Nobody is going to financially support me, so I must work full-time. And I'm not a housewife who sends the kids off to school and then hops around in pink and purple leotards at Jazzercise classes so she can look good for her hubby. The range of lifestyle changes available to me is quite limited at this time.

One of the contraindications involving the use of Acomplia is serious psychiatric conditions such as depression. Although I fall into that category, I'm willing to take the risk because I'm already receiving treatment. My unipolar depression is pretty much under control. By the way, here's another example for the anti-medication crowd to think about. Some people say that cognitive therapy worked well for them. It didn't do anything for me. My depression came out of nowhere; I was minding my own business when it hit me. It didn't come about because I started with a bad attitude or something. So there's no way someone could "cognitive" me out of something that I wasn't "cognitived" into in the first place. Strong doses of Wellbutrin and Lexapro made me fairly functional again. Enough so that I could crawl out from under a dysfunctional relationship that was eroding my self-esteem. Enough so that I could finally escape from a nightmarish employment situation after finding a job that I actually like. I find it laughable when somebody claims that medication is a bad idea because drug companies are only out to make money. As if nobody ever made a profit on anything else we've bought!

So there's a risk of depression or hallucinations? Big deal. Everything has risks. You can always stop taking the meds if you can't tolerate the side effects--in contrast to gastric bypass surgery where 1 out of every 100 patients develops serious complications and 1 out of every 200 patients dies. And certainly, doing nothing different (remaining obese) has health risks. But if a medication can cause just enough weight loss to reduce the burning pain in my spine, hips and knees, perhaps I can get my chores done a little faster and then go outside for even longer power-walks. Maybe eventually, I'd have enough time and energy to make it worthwhile to renew my membership at the park district fitness center.

There have been genetic Obese rats around since the 1970s when I worked with them in a lab studying obesity. I have heard the good and the bad about not only rimonabant but about every other drug out there. So give us the info and let us decide whether we are willing to take the risks. Just be as upfront about the risks as possible. Then we decide whether to take it or not. I have heard good stories about the rimonabant trials and horror stories about the same. Not unlike what i've heard about any other drug. Xenical works if you don't eat ANY fat - only then will you have that dreaded "Xenical Moment" and have a spout of diarrhea in public. but who can eat absolutely NO fat? Rimonabant is an interesting approach to weigh loss for some. I hope it works for them!

By publishing "Carol's" self-described,apparent adverse reactions to Accomplia. little is gained. We don't know, for example, if Carol had/has an underlying psychopathology which perhaps was unmasked, even fueled by Rimonabant. To present this anecdotal incident is irresponsible and misleading. Naturally, any drug that blocks known pleasure receptors (in this case so-called "cannabinoid" receptors) might be assumed to have effect on mood. But before one draws even the most preliminary conclusions about the use of a drug, one needs know how large the sample (N) is, how the studies were conducted, and so forth. The slightest aquaintanceship with pharmaceuticals gives bounty of examples of unusual, paradoxical, expected adverse reactions or complications involving the use of a given drug. Check the package insert of every medication available in the Western world and find instances of aspirin causing head-ache, antihistamines causing excitement and confusion, and so forth. Singling out one unsubstantiated claim of a pseudonymous "test-case" is of no consequence and, in fact, constitutes misrepresentation. Any individual reliant upon nicotine (tobacco products) and caloric satiation to feel centered and comfortable could be expected to suffer some pangs of deprivation when taking a substance that blocks pleasure receptors specific to such behavior. There is a constellation here involving equal parts physiology, addiction, psychodynamics, and neurology which "Carol's" case as described does in no way address. Let me add, as but one aside, that "Carol's" boyfriend might have dumped her anyway for being too fat or for smoking or whatehaveyou. Perhaps Accomplia did them both a favor by pushing the clock ahead a bit; rather than waste further time together while slowly reaching the understanding of their incompatibility, Accomplia mericifully, if uncomfortably, saved them months to years of misplaced affections. I say this with tongue in cheek to an extent, but/and that is exactly how I feel the purported experience (as a bona fide example of adverse reaction) should be understand as described above.
That said, when I mentioned this drug to a physician friend of mine, and how it appears to have no undue side effects, and it assures weight loss AND release from the yoke of nicotine consumption, he smiled: "Sounds too good to be true." We howled over that because usually when something sounds too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Nevertheless, the reported case of "Carol" neither bolsters nor counters this. Sage clinicians counsel patients to never be the first, nor last, to take a given drug. Indeed, there are no trials with an N large enough nor enough time passed to give a truly clear picture of what side-effect profile a new medication will ultimately exhibit. The true character precipitates after some time in the public's use. As Accomplia is not meant to address immediate life/death matters, there is no reason to jump on it with such thoughtful and good sense.

I have just finished my first month of Acomplia.

I need to lose 30 kg.

The first day I took it I was a bit sea-sick. I waited it out. It lasted a half a day. I thought was also a little sleepy. I really noticed the drop in appetite. By the end of the first 3 days I noticed no side effects, but had a feeling of relaxation during the periods when I would usually be snacking away at my desk. Not that sort of edgy speed-like feeling that I used to associate with dieting. I got used to the pill really fast.

After a couple of weeks, I started to wonder if it would be better to take the pill later in the morning, just because I thought that maybe the effect was wearing off by bedtime (another BIG snack time for me). After a few subtle changes of my own, I find I get the greatest effect (not wanting to snack) when I take the pill on an empty stomach with a tall glass of water about 45 minutes BEFORE I eat breakfast. I usually do this when I get up, before I start my morning routine of bathing and dressing.

I have been on a low fat/carb diet too. But nothing that has driven me to distraction. I guess I have had a few "grumpy" days and some "down" days, but they are singular events, only a day long. Nothing that does not happen to me naturally. The same goes for nausea or upset tummy. That is more likely related to my diet right now.

I ride my bike to work, but it is not a really strenuous workout, about 20 minutes each way on gentle near flat roads.

In the last month, I have lost 7kg. I too, went swimming for the first time in ages and did not feel uncomfortable. I really should go to the gym. I bet the weight will really drop off then.

My blood pressure and cholesterol are fine (due to bike riding I suspect) but I do want to loose that tire around the abdomen, and this might help.

I have suffered depression in the past and was treated successfully. I am aware of the warning. Luckily I have not felt that side-effect, but I did tell myself that if I did feel low for more than a few days, I would stop the drug.

I have been on the tablets for two weeks now, the only side effects I have had have been in the first three days with headaches. I have had no pyschotic or depressive thoughts or feelings. They have decreased my appetite I was constantly eating before I took them but now I don't feel hungry at all and when I do eat I feel full after a meal which I never experienced before

I need to post this and echo the experience of Carol and others who have posted here.

I took myself off Acomplia 4 days ago. I echoed the sentiment of someone else who posted here - I'd rather be depressed and thin than fat and happy. I think I'd be dead by now if my asthma hadn't saved me.

A couple of days into Acomplia the killer, dark, evil suicidal depression hit me. I spent my working day staring at a screen just repeating the words 'It's all futile' over and over again. I only kept my job because colleagues covered my backside and kept management away from me. At home I cried, then sat still blankly for hours, then cried some more. Every time I slept I had terrible nightmares.

Every day I kept taking the Acomplia because it was better to be thin and depressed than fat and happy. More over I was so depressed I believed I deserved all the pain I got. The urge for self harm was over whelming.

Not only did the Acomplia bring on depression, but it made my previously controlled asthma spiral out of control. For that reason, and that reason only, I took myself off Acomplia. I was about to be hospitalised for the asthma and I didn't feel I deserved it.

Now, a few days out of Acomplia I look at what the hell happened to me. I really don't advocate banning what may be a life saving drug, but it really, really must only be used under 24 hour monitoring in a hospital/clinic environment for the first few weeks.

I'm sorry you feel people having adverse reactions to Acomplia just constitute your made up phrase of 'doubtful unknowings'.

I'm sorry if you equate suicial behaviour with 'a little less unhappy' - by which I assume you indended to type 'a little less happy'.

I'm fascinated how you manage to confuse weeks and months with days. This suggests you too are suffering from a mental problem you are currently unaware of - just like the people you state didn't know they were depressed before taking Acomplia.

Please tell us your experiences with Acomplia. How has it made you feel? How much weight have you lost? How long have you been taking it for?

Oh... you haven't actually taken it have you.