About Obesity
While there has been a broad recognition of obesity as a public health crisis, there continues to be a significant unmet need for more effective pharmacological interventions. Obesity is the number one health threat and one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in the United States. Roughly one third of the U.S. adult population, according to the CDC, suffers from obesity. Obesity is also a significant health problem outside of the United States. According to the World Health Organization, there are as many as 1.6 billion people worldwide considered to be overweight, with at least 400 million estimated to be obese.
Obesity is related to the increased prevalence of diabetes, cancer, hypertension, high cholesterol, coronary artery disease, sleep apnea, liver and pulmonary disease, among other conditions. Beyond these consequences, a number of co-morbidities involving the CNS may be complicated by obesity. These co-morbidities include anxiety, depression, substance abuse, chronic pain and insomnia. Physicians in the United States report that approximately 63% of their obese patients have been diagnosed with depression or display signs and symptoms of untreated depression.
Obesity and its co-morbidities are believed to cause substantial added cost to the health care system. Annual medical expenditures attributable to obesity may be as high as $147 billion per year. These direct healthcare expenses are projected to further increase to approximately $344 billion per year by 2018.
Past and projected overweight rates
Source: OECD