Anti-addiction drug acts as diet pill

A drug usually used to treat people with addiction has proved successful in causing weight loss and could potentially become the latest miracle diet pill.

The Contrave Obesity Research I (COR-I) study, conducted in America and published in The Lancet, assessed the effect of a combination of sustained-release naltrexone and bupropion in overweight and obese participants.

Those involved were also told to stick to a mild hypocaloric diet and to exercise and some of them were given doses of the two drugs.

Only half of the 1,742 people enrolled in the study saw it through to the very end, but those who did and were in the group administered with the drugs lost as much as six per cent of their bodyweight.

“A sustained-release combination of naltrexone plus bupropion could be a useful therapeutic option for treatment of obesity,” the researchers concluded.

Last month, Gail Porter told the Coventry Telegraph that she lost weight using a diet pill consisting of natural ingredients.