U.S government researchers find that an epilepsy drug that is being tested to treat addiction also helped to shed weight in obese rats.

The researchers said that their findings not only helped to treat drug addicts, but it also showed promising results for an easy treatment for obesity.

After 40 days of the drug injections (known as Vigabatrin or GVG), even those rats that were bred to be obese seemed to lose almost 19 percent of their weight and normal rats seemed to lose 12 to 20 percent weight.

Amy DeMacro, who led the study, told in a telephone interview, “When GVG was given to the rats, they began to lose weight steadily, and when the drug was taken off, the rats began to gain weight again.”

She further added, “The rats that were given higher doses, seemed to lose more weight and we didn’t see any side effect of the drug in these rats.”

In Canada and Mexico, Vigabatrin is sold as Sabril and in Britain; Sanofi Aventis is selling this drug. Recently, Vigabatrin has been tested in people with methamphetamine and cocaine addiction.

The study has been published in the journal Synapse and it tells that Vigabatrin seems to stop dopamine reward system in the brain that causes overeating and addiction.