Trial reportDiabetes, obesity & metabolism2019
Longer-term liraglutide administration at the highest dose approved for obesity increases reward-related orbitofrontal cortex activation in response to food cues: Implications for plateauing weight loss in response to anti-obesity therapies.
Trial report in Diabetes, obesity & metabolism, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 33 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
33 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 59 citations in OpenAlex.
- Neuroimaging Investigations of Obesity: a Review of the Treatment of Sex from 2010.Current obesity reports · 2023Pooled it
- Neural Correlates of Anti-appetite Medications: An fMRI Meta-analysis.Current neuropharmacology · 2021Pooled it
- Can GLP-1 Be a Target for Reward System Related Disorders? A Qualitative Synthesis and Systematic Review Analysis of Studies on Palatable Food, Drugs of Abuse, and Alcohol.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Appetite, eating attitudes, and eating behaviours during treatment with retatrutide in adults with type 2 diabetes: Results of a phase 2 study.Diabetes, obesity & metabolism · 2025Trial
- Tirzepatide on ingestive behavior in adults with overweight or obesity: a randomized 6-week phase 1 trial.Nature medicine · 2025Trial
- A randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of liraglutide on self-reported liking and neural responses to food stimuli in participants with obesity.International journal of obesity (2005) · 2023Trial
- Effects of liraglutide on gastrointestinal functions and weight in obesity: A randomized clinical and pharmacogenomic trial.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2022Trial
- Circulating total and intact GDF-15 levels are not altered in response to weight loss induced by liraglutide or lorcaserin treatment in humans with obesity.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2022Trial
- Short-term treatment with high dose liraglutide improves lipid and lipoprotein profile and changes hormonal mediators of lipid metabolism in obese patients with no overt type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over, double-blind clinical trial.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2019Trial
- Exploring the off-label use of liraglutide in the treatment of obesity: a review.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2026Review
- Harnessing food cue evoked neuroimaging towards treatment optimisation for obesity and binge eating disorder.Reviews in endocrine & metabolic disorders · 2026Review
- GLP-1 at the Metabolic-Cognitive Interface: Reward, Affect, and Memory.Comprehensive Physiology · 2026Review
- Nutritional and lifestyle supportive care recommendations for management of obesity with GLP-1 - based therapies: An expert consensus statement using a modified Delphi approach.Obesity pillars · 2026Review
- Do GLP-1 Receptor Agonists Alter Brain Responses to Reward-Related Cues? A Systematic Review.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Altered eating experience during GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy: a sensory-liking-wanting framework for food preference and nutritional behaviour.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Review
- Examining the Omission of Dietary Quality Data in Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Clinical Trials: A Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Hedonic eating is controlled by dopamine neurons that oppose GLP-1R satiety.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor: mechanisms and advances in therapy.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2024 · on this mapReview
- New therapies for obesity.Cardiovascular research · 2024Article
- Weight Loss Effect of GLP-1 RAs With Endoscopic Bariatric Therapy and Bariatric Surgeries.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
aimsGLP-1 analogs have recently risen to the forefront as effective medications for lowering weight through actions in the central nervous system (CNS). However, their actions in the CNS have not yet been studied in the human brain after longer-term administration at the highest dose approved for obesity (liraglutide 3.0 mg). MATERIALS AND
methodsA total of 20 participants with obesity were treated with placebo and liraglutide (3.0 mg) in the context of a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over trial after 5 weeks of dose escalation. Neurocognitive and neuroimaging (fMRI) responses to food cues were examined at the clinical research center of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
resultsWhile using liraglutide, patients lost more weight (placebo-subtracted -2.7%; P < .001), had decreased fasting glucose (P < .001) and showed improved cholesterol levels. In an uncontrolled analysis, brain activation in response to food images was not altered by liraglutide vs placebo. When controlled for BMI/weight, liraglutide increased activation of the right orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) in response to food cues (P < .016, corrected for multiple comparisons).
conclusionsIn contrast to prior studies, we demonstrate for the first time that liraglutide treatment, administered over a longer period at the highest doses approved for obesity, does not alter brain activation in response to food cues. A counter-regulatory increase in reward-related OFC activation in response to food cues can be observed when neuroimaging data are controlled for BMI changes, indicating changes in CNS that could lead to later plateaus of weight loss. These data point to a promising focus for additional interventions which, by contributing to the CNS reward system, could provide tangible benefits in reversing the plateauing phenomenon and promoting further weight loss.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.