Effectiveness of Brief Counseling for Weight Management

There is a growing demand for effective obesity treatments that don't require much time to implement especially in a primary health-care setting where time is especially limited. Brief interventions that might provide benefits similar to those produced by more time-intensive and costly lifestyle interventions would be very useful. There is also increasing interest in the efficacy of primary drug therapies for obesity. The purpose of this 12-month study, and 24-month follow-up, is to examine the efficacy of a brief behavioral counseling intervention alone or in combination with a drug already approved for the long-term management of obesity (orlisat)and compare both interventions to a drug alone condition.

Inclusion criteria

• Body Mass Index of 30 to 40
• Male or females ages of 25 to 55 years
• Normal blood pressure or controlled with medicine
• Females not lactating, able to get pregnant or using acceptable birth control
• Current allowed medications prescribed at least 2 months prior to study

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnant, planning to get pregnant or becomes pregnant
• Insulin dependent diabetes
• Uncontrolled hypertension
• Prescence or history of significant medical conditions that could impact the outcome of the study
• Prescence of active gastrointestinal disorders
• History of mental disorders including eating disorders
• Weight loss greater than 10 pounds in the last 3 months
• History of alcohol or drug dependency
• Use of any weight-loss medication in the last 6 months
• Known allery to orlistat or any of its components