ReviewCureus2025
Rebound or Retention: A Meta-Analysis of Weight Regain After the Discontinuation of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Receptor Agonists and Other Anti-obesity Drugs.
Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Mechanobiology of Adipocyte Hypertrophy: Cytoskeletal Remodelling as a Driver of Insulin Resistance in Obesity.Cell biochemistry and function · 2026Review
- From Induction to Maintenance? Rethinking GLP-1-Based Obesity Pharmacotherapy in the Era of Oral Agents.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2026Article
- Structured Exercise During and After Incretin-Based Pharmacotherapy Discontinuation: A Narrative Review of Mechanisms, Evidence, and Prescription Guidance.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Peptide Hormones in Appetite Regulation: A Complex Network.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Review
- Review
- Balancing metabolic optimization and reproductive safety in Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: a Bayesian-informed framework for GLP-1 receptor agonists.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Anti-obesity pharmacotherapies, such as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists and orlistat, are effective for weight loss; however, weight regain following treatment discontinuation remains a major concern. This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the magnitude of weight regain after reaching peak weight loss, and to compare rebound effects across four commonly used agents: semaglutide, liraglutide, exenatide, and orlistat. A systematic search was conducted in PubMed (n = 498), Cochrane Library (n = 41), Scopus (n = 258), ScienceDirect (n = 248), and Web of Science (n = 158) from January 2010 to October 2024. After removing 153 duplicates, 950 records were screened. Following full-text assessment, 36 studies were included in the final analysis. Data extraction was performed using Excel (Microsoft® Corp., Redmond, WA, USA), and graphical data were digitized using WebPlotDigitizer. Risk of bias was assessed using RoB 2.0, and meta-analyses were conducted with Comprehensive Meta-Analysis (v3.7), using mean difference (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). I² statistics were used to assess heterogeneity, and Egger's and Begg's tests were used to evaluate publication bias. Semaglutide showed the highest weight regain after discontinuation (MD = -5.15 kg; 95% CI: -5.27 to -5.03), followed by exenatide (MD = -3.06 kg; 95% CI: -3.91 to -2.22), liraglutide (MD = -1.50 kg; 95% CI: -2.41 to -0.26), and orlistat (MD = -1.66 kg; 95% CI: -2.75 to -0.58). Heterogeneity was moderate to high (I² ranging from 41.7% to 99.7%). Egger's test showed significant bias for liraglutide (p = 0.013), while no major bias was found for the other agents. This meta-analysis demonstrates that weight regain is common and drug-dependent following the discontinuation of anti-obesity pharmacotherapies. The findings emphasize the need for sustained, long-term treatment strategies to maintain weight loss and to manage obesity as a chronic disease.
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What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.