Nearly three months into taking Ozempic for diabetes, Jenny Kent had already lost 12 pounds, and her blood sugar numbers were looking better than they had in a while.
Ozempic, the injectable drug approved for Type 2 diabetes, has taken the world by storm.
But for Kent something else changed after she started taking Ozempic.
“I was just constantly in a state of being overwhelmed,” says Kent. “So my response to that was just I was just crying all the time. Sobbing, crying … I still didn’t put it together, so I kept … taking my injections.”
She’s one of many people taking Ozempic and related drugs who describe mental health problems. But that side effect isn’t mentioned in Ozempic’s instructions for use, or drug label.
In July, the European Medicines Agency said that it was looking into the risk of thoughts of self-harm and suicidal thoughts with the use of Ozempic and similar drugs. As of July 11, the regulator, Europe’s FDA, was evaluating more than 150 reports.
The FDA hasn’t taken that step. For now, the agency is monitoring the situation. “We continue to conclude that the benefits of these medications outweigh their risks when they are used according to the FDA approved labeling,” spokesperson Chanapa Tantibanchachai said in an email to NPR. She noted that weight-loss drug Wegovy, which contains the same active ingredient as Ozempic, semaglutide, includes a warning about suicidal thoughts on its label.
Even though the link between these drugs and mental health concerns isn’t definitive, it’s important that patients talk with doctors if they experience something unusual, says Dr. Jonathan Alpert, who chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
“I always think it makes sense to take side effects like that seriously, particularly in drugs that are relatively new and that we’re still learning about,” he says.
Ya don’t say? A wildly popular weight loss drug wasn’t tested enough before being unleashed on the public?
Who could have expected such a thing?
Didn’t something similar happen in the 90’s with Fen/Phen?
Me. I expected it. Along with anyone else that has been paying attention to how the pharma industry handles things.
Pharma companies are required to continuously monitor their drugs adverse effects even after FDA approval ever since Vioxx killed a bunch of people, so that’s good at least. You’ve piqued my interest. I actually just looked at Semaglutide’s adverse effects from their phase 3 trial and the semaglutide cohort actually reported a lower rate of psychiatric disorders than the control group. Maybe they should have had a larger sample size or a longer study window.
Meh, it’s a diabetes drug. The risk factor for that is worth it.
If lazy idiots want to take it because they can’t cut the carbs and do a few press-ups, then at least they’re doing drug trials for the rest of us for free.
Reaching and maintaining a healthy weight as an obese person is probably one of the toughest tests of willpower out there. It requires undoing a lifetime’s worth of habits that might have formed due to environmental factors, poor mental health and behaviours learned as children.
I think it’s a bit unfair to refer to people struggling with their weight as “lazy idiots”.
Oh, I’m including myself there.
I cut the carbs, get on the bike, lose weight, feel great.
Eat carbs, don’t get on the bike, gain weight, feel shit.
Rinse repeat.
I’m just not going to take a drug for it. I quite enjoy getting fat, just don’t like being fat.