There is no evidence that GLP-1 weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy pose a risk of suicide to patients, U.S. researchers said on Friday. Previously, it was reported that some patients had thoughts of suicide and self-mutilation, as well as negative effects such as depression after taking Wegovy, Ozempic and similar weight loss drugs. This has caused people to worry, and regulatory agencies in many countries are reviewing it and saying that they will take certain actions based on the subsequent results.
According to previous data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency has received 265 reports of suicide and self-harm in patients taking these weight loss drugs. Therefore, the agency has listed suicidal thoughts as a potential safety risk for GLP-1 drugs.
The latest study published in the top international medical journal NatureMedicine found that after investigating electronic medical record data of 1.8 million patients with type 2 diabetes or obesity, researchers believed that the use of semaglutide was not associated with an increase in suicidal thoughts. In fact, this drug reduced suicidal thoughts. The active ingredients of Wegovy and Ozempic are semaglutide.
Semaglutide is a GLP-1 receptor agonist that can reduce hunger, reduce eating, and reduce caloric intake. It was initially used to treat type 2 diabetes and was later found to be effective in weight loss. In addition, some recent clinical trials have also shown that GLP-1 receptor agonists such as semaglutide can also reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Researchers compared nearly 53,000 Wegovy patients with an equal number of users of other weight-loss drugs. The results found that 0.11% of Wegovy users reported having suicidal thoughts for the first time in the first six months of using Wegovy, compared with 0.43% of patients taking bupropion, naltrexone, orlistat, topiramate, phentermine or setmelanotide.
Researchers said Wegovy's risk of first-time suicidal ideation was reduced by 73% after accounting for other risk factors. Among patients with suicidal thoughts, Wegovy was associated with a 56% lower risk of recurrence of suicidal thoughts compared with other weight loss drugs.
That is, patients taking semaglutide had a lower risk of both first and recurrent suicidal thoughts. These risk reductions were consistent across gender, race and age groups, the report noted.
Pamela Davis, a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, said the popularity of next-generation weight-loss drugs such as semaglutide makes it important to understand all their potential side effects. "It is important to know that previous suggestions that the drug may trigger suicidal thoughts have not been confirmed in this large and diverse population, and that the use of semaglutide actually reduced the risk of suicide."