Tenuate
® (
diethylpropion hydrochloride) is a prescription medication approved to treat obesity for short-term use only (just a few weeks). It should be used along with an appropriate diet and exercise.
Brand-name Tenuate is no longer being made.
Generic Tenuate is manufactured by Watson Laboratories and CorePharma, LLC.
The drug works by suppressing the appetite, and it may also increase the metabolism. It is chemically related to amphetamines.
Only very short studies have evaluated the effectiveness of medications like Tenuate.
In these studies, people taking these
weight loss drugs lost more weight than those not taking the drugs, but the difference was very small (only a fraction of a pound more per week). Studies also suggest that the effects of these types of drugs for weight loss decrease after the first few weeks.