Acomplia - new weight loss pill helps people stop drug and alcohol addiction

A new anti-obesity pill that has been shown to not only help lose weight and quit smoking could also be effective in helping people stop drug and alcohol addiction, scientists claim.

Acomplia, or rimonabant, is an experimental drug developed by the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi-Aventis primarily as a diet pill, but the drug works differently that most diet pills in that it blocks the brain’s reward system.

It works by blocking the connection between a pleasure-seeking activity, like smoking or overeating, and the reward “feeling” it causes in the brain. The human body contains endocannabinoids, marijuana-like substances that can stimulate the brain’s reward system.

Acomplia blocks the effect of the natural endocannabinoids by keeping them from attaching to the brain cells they usually stimulate, scientists say.

In March of this year, Acomplia gained a great deal of attention when two research studies demonstrated that it could not only help people lose weight, but quit smoking also. Last week, researchers reported rimonabant helped keep weight off for two years, lower bad cholesterol, increase good cholesterol, and it could possibly be used to fight drug and alcohol abuse.

Acomplia Side Effects

Sanofi-Aventis will begin the process of seeking Food and Drug Administration approval for use of Acomplia in the United States. That process could begin as early as next year. Once the drug is approved for use as a diet pill in the U.S., it can then be studied for its effect on addicts and alcoholics, researchers say.

However, the two-year study of Acomplia showed some side effects including depression, anxiety, and irritability. Researchers reported that those side effects were mostly minor and short-lived. But 13 percent of those in the trial who took the most effective dose of the drug, stopped taking it and dropped out of the study due to those side effects.

Some scientist have expressed concern about the mental side effects of the drug and some believe that the FDA will want to carefully study the long-rage use of the drug for possible risk factors before giving its approval, which could take years.