Weight Loss Drug Helps Half of Teens in Study Fight Obesity

May 19, 2023 – Nearly half of teens given the weight-loss drug semaglutide (Wegovy) managed to lose enough weight to drop below the clinical threshold for obesity, a new study shows.

By comparison, only 12.1% of obese adolescents who received a placebo in the 68-week trial fell below the threshold.

Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 because it mimics the effects of glucagon-like peptide 1, a hormone produced in the intestine that helps people feel full.

The study, called STEP TEENS (Semaglutide Treatment Effect in People with Obesity), also shows that 74% of people in the study dropped at least one body mass index, or BMI, category after receiving an injection medication weekly. compared to 19% of those who received placebo.

“In a practical sense, we see that semaglutide reduced weight to a level below what is defined as clinical obesity in nearly 50% of adolescents in our trial, which is historically unprecedented with treatments other than surgery. disease,” said Aaron Kelly, MD, co-director of the Center for Pediatric Obesity Medicine at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, who presented the latest data Thursday at the European Congress on Obesity in Dublin, Ireland.

“The results of the STEP TEENS study represent a promising development for the treatment of adolescent obesity and associated complications related to liver function,” said Malley.

Exercising a part of the plan

In this most recent analysis of the STEP TEENS trial, the authors examined the effect of semaglutide on moving 134 adolescents from one BMI category to another, including falling below the obesity threshold to the overweight or normal weight category; 66 adolescents received a placebo.

All participants also received nutritional counseling and a goal of 60 minutes of moderate-to-high-intensity physical activity per day.

“After 68 weeks not much happened [in placebo participants]however, 12.1% of placebo participants dropped below the obesity threshold into the overweight or normal weight categories,” Kelly said.

But referring to people taking semaglutide, “a total of 45% of patients taking semaglutide fell below the clinical BMI cutoff point for obesity, so 19.5% fell into the overweight category and 25.4% reduced their BMI to the normal weight category,” he said. saying.

Although not “statistically significant,” Kelly noted that “females tended to respond better to semaglutide, just as younger adolescents and average body weights tended to respond better to the drug, and there was a similar pattern with classes of obesity”.