ABSTRACT
Nearly 75% of the ingested drugs that are currently cited in the Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) list nausea, change in appetite, or body weight as an adverse symptom. For most of these drugs the nausea and loss of appetite is a general reaction to a pharmacological insult to the body. In some cases the loss of appetite and body weight caused by drug therapy is sufficiently serious, such as drug chemotherapy for cancer, that the other medication must be taken to enhance appetite. In other cases, slow and subtle changes in body weight and appetite were first noted in people chronically taking certain medications. These observations can now be combined with a large body of information on the biochemistry of appetite and weight regulation. As this information accumulates, a clear understanding is emerging of the fundamental processes underlying the control of appetite and the regulation of body weight. This allows us not only to understand why certain drugs cause changes in body weight, but also will help us predict what drugs will affect appetite and body weight in humans.
