Is it safe for coeliac disease patients to take antiobesity medications?

Patients with coeliac disease (CD) on a gluten-free diet and are treated with antiobesity medications (AOMs) show comparable weight loss outcomes to those without CD, reports a study.

This finding suggests that AOMs are safe and effective for weight management in CD patients.

In this retrospective cohort study, the authors matched 39 patients with CD to 78 patients without CD based on sex and AOM and examined weight loss outcomes at 3, 6, and 12 months after starting the AOM in both cohorts. They then compared the response of the two groups by type of AOM used (ie, injectable glucagon-like peptide 1 [GLP-1] receptor agonists vs oral non-GLP-1 AOMs).

Patients in both cohorts showed similar demographic and anthropometric characteristics at baseline.

At 12 months, patients with CD showed a total body weight loss percentage that was comparable to those without CD (6.5 percent vs 9.5 percent; p=0.13). The proportion of patients achieving a total body weight loss percentage of ≥5 percent also did not differ between the two cohorts (72.7 percent vs 72.1 percent; p=1.00).

In addition, weight loss outcomes between injectables and oral AOMs showed no significant difference, and the number of patients who experienced any side effects was similar between CD and no CD groups, regardless of the type of AOM used.

“Increasing rates of obesity and obesity-associated comorbidities have been previously reported in patients with CD on a gluten-free diet,” the authors said, noting that the “effectiveness of AOMs in this population has not been previously described.”