ROME (ITALPRESS) – Scientific research is reaching a turning point in the treatment of obesity, which is a real chronic disease with steadily growing data. According to the ISTAT report, In Italy, in 2021, the proportion of overweight in the adult population is 36.1 percent, while people with obesity are 11.5 percent, with a constantly growing trend.The therapeutic novelty is represented by the molecule Tirzepatide, now available in Italy, which may prove disruptive, given also the role of obesity in determining metabolic, cardiovascular, and oncological pathologies. This unique new molecule not only helps to lose weight, but also helps to reduce the main cardiovascular risk factors.Many people, in the past, have tried, even without medical consultation, various weight-loss programs, diets and exercise, also spending time and money, but without getting lasting results.With Tirzepatide’s innovative approach, unlike other drugs available today that take up to five months to reach an effective dose, it takes only four weeks to see the first concrete results. This means less anxiety related to constant dose changes and much easier treatment management, with immediate motivation that promotes greater adherence to therapy, helping to make the weight loss journey more realistic and satisfying. All this with an excellent tolerability profile, with no major side effects. “Tirzepatide represents a pharmacological innovation due to its dual nature, which allows a single molecule to act on two receptors, GIP and GLP-1, reducing hunger and promoting weight loss,” stresses Paolo Sbraccia, Full Professor of Internal Medicine, Dept. Systems Medicine, Tor Vergata University, Director UOC Internal Medicine and Obesity Medical Center, Policlinico Tor Vergata – In the phase 3 SURMOUNT-1 clinical trial, the drug, in addition to diet and exercise, demonstrated with the first maintenance dose of 5 mg (achieved after 4 weeks of treatment) a 16 percent weight reduction at week 72. In addition, with the maximum maintenance dose of 15 mg, tirzepatide demonstrated an unprecedented weight loss of 22.5 percent. In addition to weight reduction, this drug offers benefits on blood pressure, triglycerides, and other cardiovascular risk factors. It is indicated for all patients with a body mass index greater than 30, but also for people who are overweight, with an index between 27 and 29, or have another complication of obesity, such as hypertension, elevated triglycerides, and sleep apnea syndrome.”Obesity profoundly affects health status as it is accompanied by major diseases and morbid conditions that, to varying degrees, worsen the quality of life and shorten its duration. “Despite progress, obesity is still often thought of as a condition, a risk factor, the result of unhealthy lifestyles, and those affected are blamed. It is forgotten that instead obesity is a disease linked to the body’s inability to regulate weight and body fat for the maintenance of health – explains Rocco Barazzoni, President SIO – Italian Society of Obesity, Department of Medical, Surgical and Health Sciences, Cattinara Hospital, University of Trieste – In Italy the numbers are increasing, with 11.5 percent of people affected, about 6 million; if we add overweight people, we reach almost half of the population: it is therefore a huge public health problem. Obesity, moreover, is a systemic disease, since it has a negative impact on all the body’s apparatuses and systems: in addition to metabolic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia, obesity is also a risk factor for oncological diseases, heart disease, kidney disease, and liver disease, not to mention biomechanical complications, with difficulties in movement, frailty, and disability that arise especially, but not only, in late life. The social and economic impact of obesity is therefore very significant, but unfortunately, full awareness of it is not taken, underestimating both prevention and treatment. With appropriate interventions and far-sighted investments, complications, hospitalizations, and drug treatments for other diseases could be reduced. “Obesity has been recognized as a chronic disease and included in the LEAs (Essential Levels of Care): for this reason, the scientific community hopes for decisions aimed at protecting the health of patients with all available tools, also considering the value of useful investments to prevent treatments and hospitalizations of complications to which people with obesity are subjected.”Innovative drugs against obesity offer great benefits, although the current costs remain significant and not yet covered by the National Health Service,” points out Luca Busetto, Past President SIO, Associate Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Padua, Dept. of Medicine DIMED, Center for the Study and Integrated Treatment of Obesity, Padua Hospital Authority. “Prescribing them privately increases the risk of inappropriate use, linked more to reasons of aesthetics than pathology. Conversely, nonreimbursability poses an equity problem for the NHS, considering that obesity is more prevalent precisely in the most disadvantaged socioeconomic classes. There is a risk of missing a great opportunity, given the results that have emerged from clinical trials that have also shown benefits on cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and sleep apnea. Therefore, a policy of at least partial reimbursement targeting those with a higher health risk is desirable: those who have already had a cardiovascular event, patients with heart failure, those with prediabetes, and those with sleep apnea are the populations indicated in the scientific literature as deserving priority. It would be an investment that would save funds on subsequent treatments and hospitalizations. “Prevalence and incidence of obesity give the General Practitioner a key role given the large number of patients coming to his or her attention.”Each General Practitioner is in charge of an average of about 600 people with a problem of excess weight, of whom about 150 have obesity and 500 are overweight,” points out Gerardo Medea, SIMG National Councilor and Head of Research. “Our task is first of all to contain the obesity problem through primary prevention and then to intercept these patients, to involve them in a personalized diagnosis and treatment pathway (that is, one that takes into account the clinical situation of each of them), but above all continuous, (since it is a chronic pathology) and multiprofessional (since it is a complex pathology). It is necessary, moreover, to share with patients realistic goals of care with regard to both lifestyle and drug therapy. Adding to the desired care of these patients today is the availability of innovative drugs, such as tirzeparide, for the treatment of obesity, which are effective and safe and can also be prescribed by family physicians. This requires robust training of general practitioners so that they acquire the skills to be able to recommend and prescribe them, also in consultation, when necessary, with second- and third-level centers.”
– Diessecom Photos –
(ITALPRESS).
