Background
What do we already know about this topic?
- Severe obesity in adolescents is defined as BMI ≥35 kg/m2, affects about 8% of adolescents in the US, and is associated with significant morbidity and premature mortality.1
- Lifestyle therapy is the cornerstone of obesity management, but only 2-10% of adolescents are able to achieve and maintain clinically significant BMI reduction with lifestyle therapy alone.2
- GLP1-receptor agonists (GLP1-RAs) can help to address the counter-regulatory processes that promote weight gain through a number of mechanisms.
- An open question is how well do GLP1-RAs work to keep off weight loss in adolescents with obesity who have lost weight with lifestyle therapy.
- These authors performed a randomized clinical trial to address this issue.
How was this study conducted?
- Participants were assigned to meal replacement therapy for up to 8 weeks.
- Those achieving ≥5% reduction in BMI were randomized to either exenatide XR (2.0 mg sc once weekly) or placebo for 52 weeks, with both groups also receiving lifestyle modification therapy.
- The overall objective was to evaluate the effect of exenatide XR on maintenance of BMI reduction and cardiometabolic risk factor improvement that was induced by meal-replacement therapy in the run-in phase.
- The pre-specified primary endpoint was mean % change in BMI.