Too often, physicians prescribe drugs first:
A survey of 200 general practitioners found 80 per cent would recommend weight-loss drugs such as Xenical, however only 26 per cent would refer overweight or obese patients to a dietician.
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Drugs or lifestyle. The physician can recommend a lifestyle change and refer for dietary and psychological counseling, but the patient is really going to determine the effectiveness of the treatment. With prescribing, there are fewer intermediaries; the patient buys and takes the medicine or doesn’t.
We all know about the rates of success for obese people with the former. Would you be surprised then at the readiness to use the latter?
Common sense check: They came to the doctor to get drugs–they can find the dietician or the health club on their own.
The basic problem with dietary referal for obesity is that the dietician thinks they need education. Every chronically obese person has dieted enough to know what they need to know. It is not a knowledge deficit.
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