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| American Medical Association recogn |
| American Medical Association recognises obesity as a disease
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 19-June-2013
5:50:16 AM |
| The American Medical Association has officially recognised obesity as a disease, a move that could induce physicians to pay more attention to the condition and spur more insurers to pay for treatments.
In making the decision, delegates at the association's annual meeting in Chicago overrode a recommendation against doing so by a committee that had studied the matter.
"Recognising obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately 1 in 3 Americans," Dr Patrice Harris, a member of the association's board, said in a statement. She suggested the new definition would help in the fight against Type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which are linked to obesity.
To some extent, the question of whether obesity is a disease or not is a semantic one, since there is not even a universally agreed upon definition of what constitutes a disease. And the AMA's decision has no legal authority.
Still, some doctors and obesity advocates said that having the nation's largest physician group make the declaration would focus more attention on obesity. It could also help improve reimbursement for obesity drugs, surgery and counseling.
"I think you will probably see from this physicians taking obesity more seriously, counseling their patients about it," said Morgan Downey, an advocate for obese people and publisher of the online Downey Obesity Report. "Companies marketing the products will be able to take this to physicians and point to it and say, 'Look, the mother ship has now recognized obesity as a disease.'"
Two new obesity drugs - Qsymia from Vivus, and Belviq from Arena Pharmaceuticals and Eisai - have entered the market in the last year.
Qsymia has not sold well for a variety of reasons, including poor reimbursement and distribution restrictions imposed because of concerns that the drug can cause birth defects. Those restrictions are now being relaxed. Belviq went on sale only about a week ago,
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