Ozempic is not related to an increase in suicidal ideation – 01/05/2024 – Equilíbrio

A large study carried out in the United States found no evidence that taking Ozempic or Wegovy, from the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, is related to an increase in suicidal thoughts, researchers reported this Friday (5).

Instead, analysis of electronic medical record data from more than 1.8 million patients found a lower risk of new and recurring suicidal thoughts in those taking semaglutide compared with those using other weight loss or diabetes medications.

Both Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and the obesity treatment Wegovy have semaglutide as an active ingredient.

Concerns about reports of suicidal ideation associated with semaglutide led to an investigation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), while the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) listed suicidal ideation as a potential safety signal. for GLP-1 medicines.

A Reuters review last year found that the FDA has received 265 reports of suicidal thoughts or behavior in patients taking semaglutide or similar medications since 2010. Thirty-six of those reports describe a death by suicide or suspicion.

These adverse event reports do not prove a link between a drug and a side effect, but they can signal to regulators the need to study a specific risk.

For this study, published online in the journal Nature and funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, researchers reviewed data from 240,258 U.S. patients who had a prescription for Wegovy or other weight-loss medications and nearly 1.6 million with type 2 diabetes. 2 prescribed with Ozempic or other treatments.

Researchers compared nearly 53,000 Wegovy patients with the same number of users of other similar weight-loss medications.

They found that during the first six months of use, first-time suicidal thoughts were reported by 0.11% of Wegovy users versus 0.43% of users of bupropion, naltrexone, orlistat, topiramate, phentermine, or setmelanotide. None of the other drugs are in the same class as semaglutide or Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, which contain the GLP-1 agonist tirzepatide.

After taking other risk factors into account, the risk of first-time suicidal thoughts was 73% lower with Wegovy, the researchers said.

No patient in the Wegovy group reported a suicide attempt compared with 14 users of the other medications, the report says.

Among patients with a history of suicidal ideation, the risk of recurrent suicidal thoughts was 56% lower with Wegovy than with other weight loss medications.

Similar patterns were observed for the use of Ozempic compared to other diabetes medications.

Results were consistent regardless of patient sex, age, or ethnicity for both semaglutide formulations.

A retrospective observational study like this cannot prove that GLP-1 agonists do not increase the risk of suicidal ideation, but the results may alleviate concerns.

Furthermore, the researchers were unable to assess the statistical significance of differences in actual suicide attempts, which they acknowledge are “critically different from suicidal ideation.”

“The explosive popularity of this drug makes it imperative to understand all of its potential complications,” study co-author Pamela Davis of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine said in a statement.

“It is important to know that previous suggestions that the medication could trigger suicidal thoughts are not borne out in this very large and diverse U.S. population.”