Pharmacological treatment of obesity in Europe: Waiting for the arrival of the white blackbird Tratamiento farmacológico de la obesidad en Europa: a la espera de la llegada del mirlo blanco

( i e f p p a t o o w d o t o t To decrease the impact of comorbidities associated to obesity, at least 5% of body weight should be lost. With lifestyle changes, this goal may be achieved in a few months, but most patients usually recover weight in the long-term.1 Maintenance of weight loss is one of the most difficult challenges in the context of an unfavorable biological and environmental situation, and adjuvant treatments are therefore needed. Innovation in drug treatment of obesity has not paralleled the disproportionate worldwide increase in obesity in the past 20 years.2 Moreover, repeated drug withdrawal over the years due to side effects has caused regulatory authorities to be much more demanding when approving a new drug indicated for obesity as compared to drugs for any other condition. In the therapeutic approach to obesity, use of drugs should have a prominent place between treatment based on lifestyle changes (5%--10% weight loss) and bariatric surgery