If you want to lose weight, don't take the 'wonder' slimming drug Acomplia (rimonabant). Although it sailed through the approval process in Europe, and has been used in the UK for a year, American investigators have discovered the drug can increase the risk of suicide.
The drug has not yet been approved for use in America - where it would be marketed as Zimulti - although it had reached the final stages for approval, where the increased suicide risk was uncovered.
Rimonabant, manufactured by Sanofi Aventis, was hailed by the UK press as a miracle drug for people who were seriously overweight. This hyperbole was based on one study, which discovered that one-third of people on the drug lost 10 per cent of their body weight, and 60 per cent lost an unimpressive 5 per cent.
What was not so well reported was the fact that everyone in the trial was also on a low-calorie diet, and virtually everyone put the weight back on once they stopped taking the drug.
Exercise anyone?