Side effects of Rimonabant
Shortly after market introduction, press reports and independent studies suggest that side effects occur stronger and more commonly than shown by the manufacturer in their clinical studies. Reports of severe depression are frequent. This is deemed to result from the drug being active in the central nervous system, an area of human physiology so complex that drug effects are highly difficult to determine reliably.

Because the drug has the opposite effects of cannabinoid receptor agonists such as tetrahydrocannabinol, which is neuroprotective against excitotoxicity, it can be theorized that Rimonabant promotes the development of neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system such as Multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease in persons who are susceptible.The reported development of previously clinically silent multiple sclerosis in one patient taking Rimonabant suggests that any patients with an underlying neurological condition should not take Rimonabant, given the neuroprotective role of the endocannabinoid system in many experimental paradigms of neurological disease.

On 15 June 2007 the BBC News reported that a committee advising the US FDA has voted not to recommend the drug’s approval because of concerns over suicidality, depression and other related side effects associated with use of the drug.

Other uses of Rimonabant

Smoking cessation
Rimonabant may also be found to be effective in assisting some smokers to quit smoking. Sanofi-Aventis is currently conducting studies to determine the possible value of rimonabant in smoking-cessation therapy. The Studies with Rimonabant and Tobacco Use (STRATUS) Program involves more than 6,000 subjects. STRATUS is designed to explore two smoking-related therapies: first, to use rimonabant directly to aid in smoking cessation; second, to help prevent weight gain in former smokers. Initial results apparently suggest that rimonabant is effective for both uses. However, the FDA has explicitly stated to Sanofi-Aventis that without additional studies rimonabant cannot be approved in the United States for smoking cessation therapy. According to Cochrane review in 2007 Rimonabant “may increase the odds of quitting approximately 1(1/2)-fold”.

Is Rimonabant Addictive?
Rimonabant reduced resumption of cocaine-seeking responses triggered by two of the three most common triggers of relapse in humans, priming and cues. It may also reduce ethanol and opiate seeking behavior[10].

Memory
Tetrahydrocannabinol is known to impair short-term memory. It was therefore hypothesised that Rimonabant may improve short-term memory. Indeed in animal studies it significantly improved the performance of rats to encode information in the short-term memory