In the never-ending quest to produce drugs to combat obesity, Merck is pursuing an experimental drug taranabant, "which fights obesity by blocking cannabinoid receptors in the brain, causes people to consume fewer calories and burn more." Of course, there are problems, handily lumped under the category of "psychiatric side effects":
But 20.8% to 31.4% of patients taking taranabant had psychiatric adverse effects, including depressed mood, irritability, anger, mood swings, tearfulness, anxiety, insomnia, and nervousness. Those effects led some 15% of patients to drop out.
Eeep! Researchers believe this is potentially a dose issue, but fortunately, the drug seems to be effective at much smaller doses than the high end dose that produced the "psychiatric side effects". Future phases of the research will aim to find the sweet spot.
