Obesity is a serious medical problem that affects millions of people, especially in Western societies. Although long considered a complicating factor in a variety of diseases, there is now widespread agreement that obesity itself should be classified and treated as a disease and that it has important conse- quences for personal health, quality of life and cost to society. Understanding obesity and the means of treating it have been hampered in the past. There have been misperceptions that obesity is a behavioral disorder and that its treatments provides only cosmetic benefits. Pharmacologic...