A group of patients classed as obese have managed to lose as much as 6% of their weight in a year by dieting, doing exercise and taking anti-addiction drugs, according to the results of a study in the US.

The results are "clinically meaningful" and could cut the participants` chance of dying, researchers said, although they pointed out that the patients` cholesterol and blood pressure did not significantly reduce during the trial.

The study signed up 1,742 patients aged 18 to 65 to take part in the 56-week trial. Only around half of them completed it.

Patients were given either a mixture of naltrexone (often prescribed to alcoholics and heroin addicts) and bupropion (the anti-smoking drug Zyban) or placebos.

When the study began the average weight of the participants was around 15.7 stone, or 100kg. Their average body mass index, a calculation arising from a weight-height formula, was 36 which categorised them all as clinically obese.

The online version of The Lancet journal published the study results which described patients losing 5%-6% of their bodyweight, relative to the doses of naltrexone they were given. Those who took placebos lost 1.3% of their weight.

Copyright ⌐ Press Association 2010

The Government`s obesity tracking system is a waste of money and does nothing to help patients, a leading physician has claimed.

Dr David Haslam, chair of the National Obesity Forum, said the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) meant doctors were, in effect, being paid to compile lists of overweight people and then do nothing.

"With obesity in the QOF I`m incentivised to identify fat people and make a list of them, and with the list do absolutely nothing, but when they come back a year later weigh them to make sure they are still fat enough that I continue to get paid," Dr Haslam told the Tackling Obesity 2010 conference in central London.

Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association`s GPs Committee, added that the practice was unnecessary, saying obese patients were screened for related conditions "as a matter of routine".

Responding, a Department of Health spokesman said: "We recognise the importance of encouraging and supporting GPs to not only identify overweight adults but also support them with an appropriate intervention and ongoing management."

Copyright ⌐ Press Association 2010