Clinical Consequences of Altered Drug Disposition in Obesity: Call for Change

Abstract

Obesity is a serious condition with many known comorbid conditions and other health risks. Despite the rising global rates of obesity, drug disposition in this population is typically understudied, which results in limited information guiding the use of drugs in patients with obesity. Presently, dosing adjustments for patients with obesity typically focus on addressing altered drug clearance with body size and are therefore limited to chronic dosing recommendations. These instructions are variable and rarely based on dedicated studies in people with obesity. This review briefly discusses the current clinical use of body measurements to guide chronic dosing instructions and highlights the need for obesity-specific dosing instructions when the half-life of a drug is prolonged (typically through increased volume of distribution) in people with obesity. Examples of drugs with apparent opportunities for either ramp-up, loading, or washout instructions for patients based on body mass index are identified, specifically for vortioxetine, posaconazole, and brexpiprazole. We call for inclusion of people with obesity in clinical studies as a special subpopulation during drug development and propose the use of body mass index to guide dosing decisions among these patients.