A number of people in Hong Kong were hospitalised after using Phentermine...

News reports appearing in the media in Hong Kong say that doctors are prescribing dangerous slimming medications to women who are desperate to shed some weight. Health experts were quoted as saying that some of these medications could be dangerous and could greatly increase the likelihood of the women getting strokes.

Particular criticism of the weight loss drug phentermine that is an appetite suppressant was noted. Phentermine works on the body's nervous system and is very similar to the banned drug amphetamine. Side effects of using phentermine include heart palpitations, insomnia and elevated blood pressure.

Pharmacists in Hong Kong said that often they were given prescriptions for phentermine by normal weight women who really did not need to shed weight. It seems that the popularity of phentermine in Hong Kong has a much to do with the fact that it is much cheaper than the far safer weight loss drug Reductil. The Society of Hospital Pharmacists (SHP) of Hong Kong said that Reductil caused a far less side effects and it was worth paying a bit more for this much safer drug.

The SHP also said that they had noted a trend for doctors to prescribe drugs alongside the Phentermine to counteract its dangerous side effects. Drugs that could lower blood pressure and decrease heart rate as well as sleeping pills were being prescribed by irresponsible doctors at the same time as the Phentermine prescriptions.

The SHP said that sleeping pills should only be prescribed to people who have serious sleeping problems and not to people who were only using them to counteract the effects of other dangerous medications. Over use of sleeping pills can cause addiction and complete dependency on them to sleep. Last year a number of people in Hong Kong were hospitalised after using Phentermine and some of them had become seriously ill.