Doctors clash over claims weight-loss jabs are 'for life'

LEADING doctors have clashed over calls to prescribe weight-loss drugs for life despite concerns over side effects and dramatic weight regain when the treatment stops.

- By Lucy Johnston

The controversy follows a high profile obesity conference in Venice, where experts claimed breakthrough research could justify keeping patients on the anti-obesity drugs for life, comparing them to statins which are used to lower cholesterol.

It showed patients on the drugs not only lost weight but had a 20% reduced risk of heart attack or stroke. Dr Simon Cork, an expert in obesity at Anglia Ruskin University, said: "People with medical problems associated with obesity will need to take these drugs for life - just as a patient might take a blood pressure drug - because for most people, once you come off these drugs the weight goes back on."