The new combination pill is different than available weight loss medications in several important ways, says study author Frank L. Greenway, MD, a professor and chief of the outpatient clinic at Pennington Biomedical Research Center of Louisiana State University System in Baton Rouge, in an email.
“Both of the drugs in the combination are used to treat addictive disorders, naltrexone for opioid addiction and bupropion for smoking,” he tells WebMD. “The combination of bupropion and naltrexone has been shown to work on both the appetite and the reward centers while other obesity medication has concentrated on the appetite mechanism alone,” he says.
It may be “helpful for those people for whom craving interferes with their ability to stay on a diet,” he says.
The drug is only effective for as long as people take it, he says. “When people stop taking a drug for a chronic disease like high blood pressure or obesity, the blood pressure or weight return to the levels they were prior to treatment.”