The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved Adipex . Many experts recommend that people use this drug for a short time (less than three months). And when people used this medication in that way, it did not appear to have an increased risk for developing heart-valve problems.
The promise of this drug was first tainted when a small number of users developed a rare blood-vessel problem called primary pulmonary hypertension (PPH). In this condition, blood vessels supplying the lungs become thickened and scarred. This disease causes shortness of breath and does not really respond well to any treatment.
Frequently, PPH is fatal. But the bubble for weight-loss drugs really burst in 1997 when researchers noted that a surprising number of patients on this medication were developing leaking of their heart valves (the "doors" between the heart's chambers). The heart valves most often affected appeared to be the mitral valve (between the left atrium and left ventricle) and the aortic valve (between the left ventricle and the aorta).
This report prompted the FDA to issue a warning regarding the use of Adipex. As more data linking these drugs to heart-valve problems accumulated, concern about diet drugs in general grew. In September 1997, the data linking Adipex with an increased risk for valvular disease were sufficiently compelling for the manufacturers of Adipex to voluntarily remove this drug from the market. Adipex is still available.
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