Say hello to Ozempic’s fingers, Ozempic’s face, Ozempic’s butt, and Ozempic’s personality.
The latest transformative result of this buzzy weight-loss drug may be its most profound yet. A growing number of patients are claiming that GLP-1 drugs and similar drugs are causing anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. lb.
Experts who investigated the science behind these drugs have revealed why the drugs, originally intended to treat diabetes, can change people’s personalities and behaviors.
Popular treatments such as Ozempic and Wegoby affect dopamine levels, which are responsible for a variety of functions. Brain chemicals not only influence our emotional and physical urges for food, but also our feelings of reward, pleasure, motivation, and exercise. These levels of change may help explain why some users even claim the drug reduces their desire for drugs, alcohol, and sex as well.
Kent Berridge, Ph.D., a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, explained: daily mail Both addictive substances and food activate the same dopamine signals and reward learning areas in the brain.
He also said that “craving for addictive drugs is also amplified by hunger.”
“When researchers try to get animals to learn to self-administer cocaine, they often keep them fasted for a period of time because that helps the animal learn,” Berridge explained.
The medical expert goes on to say, “Hunger is specifically for food, but it’s much more common and causes cravings for many things. It looks like it’s going up.”
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Because these drugs help patients feel fuller for longer, experts believe they also reduce cravings for things other than food, such as drugs or alcohol.
“Feeling full can not only reduce your desire for food, but potentially also reduce your desire for other things,” Berridge says.
GLP-1 drugs appear to alter the motivational dopamine system, weakening but not eliminating desire. For example, patients have found that while taking these drugs, they eat less, but not their appetite, which experts say can lead to other vices. I believe.
“That is a possibility, but [edge off certain cravings]And if you’re trying to lose weight or stop taking drugs, these are the things that matter,” Dr. Berridge said.
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He also said it was “possible” that sex drive would decrease while taking GLP-1 drugs.
Dr. Berridge explained that sex is a pleasurable, natural desire, so suppressing reward pathways can reduce sexual desire.
“If you are oppressing, [dopamine activation] That would be plausible since sexual desire is at its natural peak,” the medical expert said.
However, he acknowledged that it is still unclear exactly how GLP-1 drugs suppress the dopamine system.
America Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System In 2023, it received 606 reports of mental disorders related to Ozempic, as well as 324 related to Saxenda and 190 related to Wigoby.
The FDA requires weight management drugs that affect the central nervous system, such as Saxenda and Wegovy, to carry warnings about suicidal thoughts. Ozempic is only approved by the FDA to treat diabetes, but it comes with no such warning.
According to research, Bariatric surgery patients are at high risk of suicide and self-harm Please follow the steps. Dr. Alexis Conason, the study’s lead author and a licensed psychologist in New York City, said that triggering experiences, such as changes in quality of life and unrealistic expectations, are more common in people undergoing other weight loss treatments such as Ozempic. He pointed out that it also happens.
“People put so much emotion and hope into weight loss that they are instilled with the illusion that if they just lose weight, everything will be fine and that if they lose weight, all the good things they want in life will come to them,” Conason told the Post. Ta.
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But while some patients report this change in mindset even as the needle on the scale drops, experts aren’t shocked.
“It’s not necessarily surprising given that things like suicidal ideation may be on the rise, because it has taken away a really important coping mechanism for a lot of people,” said CEO and Co-Founder of Weight Inclusive. Brooke Boyarski Pratt of Nursing Care Company known wellhe told the Post.
Dr. Gregory Dodell of Central Park Endocrinology also pointed out that patients taking appetite-suppressing drugs may not be getting enough nutrition, which can disrupt their mental stability.
“What we eat and drink has a lot to do with keeping our bodies balanced,” he told the Post.
The European Medicines Agency recently announced that there is no evidence of a causal link between Ozempic and suicidal thoughts. The FDA reached a similar conclusion in January.
The weight-loss drug has soared in popularity in recent months, and the FDA has announced that the drug has been removed from store shelves and is in short supply.
However, some experts say it hasn’t been used for a long enough period of time to study the long-term effects and may be being exploited by some as a quick way to shed a few pounds. I’m warning you that there is.
