Jan. 5, 2024 – People taking semaglutide – the active ingredient in the weight loss drug Wegovy and the type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic – did not have an increase in suicidal thoughts, compared to people taking other drugs for those conditions, according to a study published in Nature Medicine.
In fact, taking Wegovy and Ozempic resulted in reduced risk of suicide ideation, compared to non-semaglutide drugs, researchers from Case Western Reserve University found.
Researchers examined electronic health data on 240,258 U.S. patients prescribed Wegovy or other drugs for weight loss and about 1.6 million people taking Ozempic or other drugs for type 2 diabetes.
At 6 months, people taking Wegovy had a 73% lower risk of first-time suicidal ideation and a 56% lower risk of recurrent suicidal ideation, compared to users of other weight loss drugs, the study said.
People taking Ozempic had a 64% and a 49% lower risk of first-time and recurrent suicide ideation, respectively, compared to people taking other drugs.
The study is significant because the FDA said this week that it is investigating reports that people who took those drugs had suicidal thoughts or two other health problems.
“These findings provide evidence that semaglutide, which helps regulate appetite and insulin levels by targeting glucagon-like peptide 1 receptors (GLP1R) in the body, does not appear to increase the risk of suicidal ideation, contrary to the claims of some anecdotal reports,” the National Institutes of Health said in a media advisory published Friday. “Outside of anecdotal and case reports, this association had not yet been explored by comprehensive studies.”
The National Institutes of Health backed the study done by Case Western researchers.
Case Western researchers said they launched their study after European health regulators announced last summer that they were studying reports linking semaglutide and suicidal ideation.
“The exploding popularity of this drug makes it imperative to understand all its potential complications,” study co-author Pamela Davis, MD, PhD, of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine said in a statement. “It’s important to know that prior suggestions that the drug might trigger suicidal thoughts is not borne out in this very large and diverse population in the U.S.”
