New study shows phentermine was a culprit this entire time!
Just released this evening, it discusses how phentermine interferes with the bodies break-down of serotonin, allowing serious build-up to occur........a problem if your taking it with any SSRI or fluramine.
<<Paris, Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) - The scientist who helped develop Interneuron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s diet pill Redux says 20-year-old research shows doctors should never have prescribed the drug in the once-popular ''fen-phen'' diet drug combination that was linked to heart-valve problems last year.
The research suggests that patients who took the drugs in combination were unknowingly blocking the body's two main ways of controlling a chemical that, when allowed to build up unchecked, can cause damage to the heart.
Interneuron and its partner, American Home Products Corp. withdrew Redux in September 1997 after research linked it to heart-valve problems in the ''fen-phen'' combination. In ''fen- phen,'' Redux and American Home's similar drug Pondimin were taken with the generic drug phentermine.
''They should never have been prescribed together,'' said Richard Wurtman, who helped develop Redux. ''You have to be extremely careful when you combine two drugs for the first time, especially when one of them has a label that's 20 years out of date.''
Labeling for phentermine was never updated to reflect studies done in the 1970s that showed the drug blocked one of the body's two main methods for mopping up serotonin, a chemical the body makes that helps control mood and appetite, said Wurtman. Redux, introduced in the U.S. in 1996, works by blocking the body's other main mechanism for keeping serotonin in balance.
Wurtman's findings suggest the same concerns about heart damage could apply when phentermine is combined with some of the most commonly prescribed drugs, antidepressants such as Eli Lilly & Co.'s Prozac and Pfizer Inc.'s Zoloft.
The same problem that applies to phentermine could also apply to related compounds found in such common over-the-counter medications such as Warner-Lambert Co.'s cold medicine Sudafed, Wurtman and his fellow researchers said. That could point to dangerous interactions between Sudafed and Prozac or Sudafed and Zoloft.
Prozac and Zoloft, like Redux, work by keeping serotonin from being absorbed into platelets, blood cells needed for clotting -- one of the body's two main mechanisms for removing serotonin. Serotonin's functions are varied and include helping regulate moods and appetite as well as blood clotting.
The research, to be presented at the Eighth International Conference on Obesity in Paris this week, is the work of Wurtman, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an Interneuron director, and Timothy Maher, director of pharmaceutical sciences at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and Ismail Ulus, a visiting MIT professor.
Their work involved testing blood samples of about 17 healthy volunteers who were given doses of phentermine. The results indicate phentermine inhibits the enzyme monoamine oxidase, or MAO, which destroys serotonin.
Combining a drug that interferes with absorption of serotonin, like Redux, with one that inhibits MAO could cause a build-up, leading to heart-valve damage, the researchers said.
At the obesity conference in Paris, American Home also will present information from a study of Redux use and heart-valve damage. This study, which looked at use of Redux without phentermine, didn't find a significant link between Redux use and heart-valve problems.
The Redux label, which warns against combining it with other obesity drugs, does cite cases of heart-valve damage in Redux users as well as the risk of a rare, frequently fatal lung disease.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration never approved use of the ''fen-phen'' combination. Still, many of the 1,100 lawsuits filed against American Home stems from use of Redux and Pondimin and phentermine.
Interneuron also faces litigation. Its stock has dropped 83 percent in the past year on withdrawal of its top drug, Redux and closed Thursday at 3 1/32, down 7/32. It sold for 39 3/8 in April 1996.
Wurtman owns 700,000 shares of Interneuron. Redux, the Lexington, Massachusetts-based company's biggest drug, was the result of research Wurtman did at MIT along with his wife, obesity researcher Judith Wurtman, he said.
In their search for a drug that would help with weight loss, Wurtman identified a drug, dexfenfluramine, sold by France's Servier. MIT was awarded a patent for use of the drug, which Servier then licensed from MIT. There was little interest in the drug until Wurtman's Interneuron licensed it and entered a marketing agreement with American Home, the world's seventh largest drugmaker.
After Redux was withdrawn, Wurtman began looking at phentermine as a possible cause of the reported heart problems. It was a problem Wurtman, who also is the director of the Clinical Research Center, had the resources to investigate. ''I run a big lab with rats and tissues and all,'' he said.
At first, Wurtman focused on phentermine's interaction with another neurotransmitter, dopamine. He looked at serotonin levels as a part of a routine check involved in this other research and found the levels were surpringly high in platelets.
That reminded him of an earlier conversation with Maher, who said research done in the 1970s indicates phentermine inhibits monoamine oxidase.
''He told me a year ago but I didn't take it too seriously,'' Wurtman said. ''I thought if it were serious, the FDA would have done something.''
More drugs than suspected may inhibit this enzyme, including common over-the-counter drugs such as Warner-Lambert Co.'s cold medicine Sudafed, the researchers said.
17:33:21 08/28/1998>>
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
