Tirzepatide versus placebo in adults with overweight or obesity, excluding diabetes. ↗
Registered primary question: Percentage weight change and the proportion losing at least 5% of baseline weight at week 72. ↗
What the reviewed report found
Journal year 2022 · Article summary reviewed 2026-08-19
Reported mean body-weight change at week 72 ranged from -15.0% to -20.9% across tirzepatide groups and was -3.1% with placebo. Gastrointestinal events were the most common adverse events, and discontinuation for adverse events was more frequent in the tirzepatide groups.↗
Keep in context: The main report concerns adults without diabetes and its 72-week weight endpoints. Separately appraised publications below examine patient-reported outcomes and exploratory physical-function subgroups from the same trial. ↗↗
Related analyses from this study (4)
These publications examine participants from the study above. They do not add independent trials.
How it relates: A report of patient-reported outcomes from SURMOUNT-1, with treatment-group comparisons and separate post hoc analyses of associations with weight reduction. ↗
Question: How did reported health-related quality of life, including physical and psychosocial functioning, change over 72 weeks? ↗
Participants: The parent trial randomized 2,539 participants: 1,896 to tirzepatide and 643 to placebo. This report reuses that population; analyses by achieved weight reduction were restricted to tirzepatide-treated participants. ↗
Reported findings: The authors report greater improvement with tirzepatide than placebo in weight-related quality-of-life and health-utility scores. Associations between the amount of weight reduction and questionnaire improvement were relatively weak overall. ↗
Limits of this analysis: The analysis excluded data after treatment discontinuation, carried forward earlier observations and made no adjustment for multiple comparisons. Only about one fifth had baseline physical-function limitations, and participants with more severe depressive symptoms were excluded. Weight-loss categories were not randomized and cannot establish that weight loss caused a psychological benefit. ↗
Post hoc analysis · Journal year 2026 · Full-text reading reviewed 2026-09-20
SURMOUNT-1: baseline physical-function subgroups
How it relates: This reading covers only the SURMOUNT-1 portion of a post hoc paper spanning SURMOUNT-1, -3 and -4. Results pooled across those trials are not assigned to this study. ↗
Question: Within SURMOUNT-1, how did changes in self-reported physical function at week 72 vary by baseline physical-function quartile? ↗
Participants: The SURMOUNT-1 efficacy and questionnaire comparisons selected one tirzepatide arm and placebo, with participants grouped by baseline questionnaire scores. They do not represent every original randomized treatment group. ↗
Reported findings: In the SURMOUNT-1 results, participants in the lowest baseline physical-function quartile showed larger questionnaire-score improvements than those in the highest quartile. Tirzepatide exceeded placebo on the weight-specific physical-function measure in each quartile. ↗
Limits of this analysis: These subgroup analyses were not powered as confirmatory tests. They used self-reported function, excluded observations after treatment discontinuation and carried forward earlier observations for missing data. Questionnaire changes do not demonstrate improved muscle mass or objectively measured physical performance. ↗
Post hoc analysis · Journal year 2025 · Full-text reading reviewed 2026-09-20
SURMOUNT-1: a retrospective definition of weight plateau
Source correction: The January 22, 2025 inline correction removes an erroneous percent sign from the week-72 label. This reading uses that corrected time point; the notice remains linked here. Correction in the article ↗
How it relates: This reading covers SURMOUNT-1 participants only; the paper also analyzes SURMOUNT-4. These are reused trial participants, not a new trial. ↗
Question: When did weight change remain below 5% in every subsequent 12-week interval? This definition does not mean weight stopped changing. ↗
Participants: The 1,438 selected participants were adherent, achieved at least 5% weight loss, had final weight data and no later dose reduction. Post-discontinuation data were excluded. ↗
Reported findings: By week 72, approximately 88–90% met this plateau definition across baseline BMI groups. The corrected abstract identifies week 72 as the time point. ↗
Limits of this analysis: Selection excludes many original participants. Plateau timing depends on later observations and scheduled visits; its definition has no established consensus. This exploratory analysis cannot specify an individual treatment decision. ↗
Post hoc analysis · Journal year 2025 · Full-text reading reviewed 2026-09-20
SURMOUNT-1: early and later weight-response patterns
How it relates: This descriptive post hoc analysis reuses the tirzepatide-treated SURMOUNT-1 cohort, without a placebo comparison for these response categories. ↗
Question: Among selected adherent participants, how did week-72 weight outcomes differ according to weight change at week 12? ↗
Participants: The 1,545 participants received at least 75% of assigned treatment and had weights at weeks 0, 12, 24 and 72. There were 278 with less than 5% loss at week 12 and 1,267 early responders. ↗
Reported findings: Of the 278 later responders, 250 (90%) reached at least 5% weight reduction by week 72. This percentage applies to the selected adherent group, not everyone who started treatment. ↗
Limits of this analysis: Response groups were not randomized. Complete-weight and adherence requirements limit generalization; diet and activity differences were unavailable. These observations do not determine whether an individual should continue or stop treatment. ↗
Registry source ↗ · Updated 2025-07-24; retrieved 2026-09-20. Registry enrollment is not necessarily the analyzed sample in a publication. Posted registry results and published article results are separate.
SURMOUNT-1 obesity trial
Design in the report
A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase 3 trial assessed body-weight change over 72 weeks.↗
Participants in the report
The trial randomized 2,539 adults with obesity, or overweight plus at least one weight-related complication, and excluded people with diabetes.↗
Limitations
The sponsor-funded trial used a dose-escalation period, excluded diabetes, and does not by itself establish outcomes after treatment stops or uncommon harms over longer periods.↗
Study context checked 2026-09-20. Existing article summaries keep their original review dates. This is a selected study reading, not a complete literature or full-text appraisal.
Exact trial identity is declared in PubMed’s ClinicalTrials.gov databank field. The registry independently labels this reference DERIVED. These source labels do not establish that every result in a paper applies to this trial.