The Long‐Term Management of Obesity in General Practice

Getting obese patients to lose weight and avoid regaining such weight is generally recognized to be a long-term problem. Yet most reported studies on weight-reducing regimes relate to periods of only a few months. Exceptions to this are de Ramos (1946) who reported an cightmonth study from a hospital out-patient department, and Lucey and Weaver (1963) who discussed their results following a year's treatment of obese patients at a hospital obesity clinic. In both cases the high defaulter rate was a problem and Lucey and Weaver remarked: "If success in this group is to be achieved, constant supervision is necessary". They went on to imply that the r.1ost suitable person to supply this supervision was the general practitioner. In order to discover in fact what results could be achieved by frequent and continued supervision plus dietary treatment of obese patients in general practice, the present study was undertaken. We considered that in conjunction with such a study it would be of value to assess the useI.. fulness of an anorectic agent as an adjunct to