This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on ISI (1)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Obesity  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In the May 12, 2003, issue of the ARCHIVES, Stafford and Radley¹ reported a significant increase in general population use of prescription medications for weight loss. National guidelines recommend that physicians prescribe prescription weight loss products to treat obesity but do not recommend nonprescription weight loss products (NPWLPs).² In fact, phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride, an over-the-counter sympathomimetic used in some NPWLPs, was voluntarily withdrawn from the US market after reports of excessive risks of hemorrhagic stroke in women.³ More recently, ephedra, while effective for short-term weight loss, has come under greater public and federal scrutiny because of reports of adverse effects ranging from anxiety to tachycardia and death^4-5; the Food and Drug Administration has banned ephedra sales. As part of a physician survey of personal weight management strategies, we set out to investigate physicians' own personal use of weight loss products and their prescriptions for their patients.

Methods

We conducted a descriptive, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Results

Comment
John La Puma, MD
Santa Barbara, Calif

Philippe Szapary, MD
Philadelphia, Pa

Kevin C. Maki, PhD
Chicago, Ill

RELATED ARTICLE

National Trends in Antiobesity Medication Use
Randall S. Stafford and David C. Radley
Arch Intern Med. 2003;163(9):1046-1050.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT