The Role of Medications for the Management of Patients with NAFLD

The article is intended to provide an overview of the strengths and limits of controlled trials of pharmacologic treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease. No drug has so far been approved, although validated on histologic outcomes. Several new drugs are under scrutiny, acting with different mechanisms along the chain of events from fatty liver to fibrosis, cirrhosis, and hepatocellular carcinoma. The article investigates which drug, if any, should be preferred for a tailored intervention in individual patients, according to age, comorbidities, and disease severity, and if treatment should be continued lifelong, to prevent disease progression and long-term occurrence of cirrhosis.