Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/06/24/ozempic-and-wegovys-untapped-potential-for-addiction-anxiety-and-depression.html
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Most certainly a “more study required” sort of thing. Given both the supply and financial limitations currently facing this class of drugs, i will hold my celebration for now.
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Indeed, it could be as some claim or imply that the drugs reduce cravings or give the patient more control over them. It could also be that depression is in part for some people caused by their inability to curb behaviors the find undesirable, or by the weight itself.
So people could be less depressed because it is exhausting to try to keep a handle on out of control eating, and that leaves less “mental energy” to keeping depression at bay, and suddenly actually having something in your brain or body that tells you “hey, your full now” as well as potentially no longer having that rather loud voice yelling “HUNGRY!!” When you probably shouldn’t be is just less depressing in and of itself.
Or having fewer people give you that “you fat fuck” look while your out and about may in and of itself have a positive effect on keeping depression at bay.
Or GLP-1 may act more directly on depression.
(Disclaimer: I’m not on either of these drugs, but do have a related one; I’m on it to keep my blood sugar under control but it has substantially curbed my appetite and I have lost a lot of weight…I’m not all that prone to depression though, or maybe I am, I rarely suffer from it, or I think “every few years” is “rarely”, I haven’t been on it long enough to know if I’m no longer going to have bouts of depression or if it has just been an extra year or so due to other random factors)
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Yeah… I think it is interesting and hope there is continued research. But I also know that basically anything can “treat” depression for a little while convincingly enough to generate false positives.
Depression is very susceptible to placebo effect and people who are depressed very often want things to change very badly and even feel they have let others down if they admit they haven’t. It’s pretty common for people to think something they are self-medicating with is working and then have a major depressive episode anyway later etc.
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Anecdotally (I’m on it for on-label blood glucose control), I noticed my after-work consumption of alcoholic beverages is way down. I was almost regular in having a beer (can / bottle) or alcoholic seltzer (hey, don’t judge lol!) at least 3 days a week, probably four. Shortly after starting injections my consumption went down to 1 drink a week or less.
I’ve never been what I consider an alcoholic but I did get some emotional relaxation or unwinding from those single beverages. I can’t say how nuanced this is, whether I am less stressed without the drink or maybe my unwinding just takes longer these days. That’d take more emotional self-awareness than I currently possess.
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These meds are really being hyped in the press. I hope it’s for real this time.
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Technically, while Ozempic is a diabetes drug, people can, and do, take it to drop weight.
But the drug — and others in its class, such as Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound — is about much more. Scientists believe the drugs are about to revolutionize several fields of medicine, such as cardiology and endocrinology. . Researchers are also running dozens of trials to see whether they might help with Alzheimer’s, liver disease, polycystic ovary syndrome and even skin conditions. If these trials prove successful, the drugs may extend many lives by years, save billions in medical costs and divide public health into before-and-after epochs. A researcher studying these drugs told me he felt like the scientist who first discovered antibiotics.
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Sure. it’s what we in the drug development trenches called a “re-purp” (repurposed). The most infamous one is viagra; originally for angina and hypertension. (“y’know doc this pill you gave me has an …interesting side-effect…” ka-ching!). But the ‘fat pill’ was always the holy-grail. Was witness to several alternative development paths shut down if there was “fat-pill potential”. Oh what a personal irony that several we studied were put out of the question because there wasn’t an oral …that is, actual pill form; when lo-and-behold! ozempic and wegovy somehow just bypassed that prohibition and is an end-user inject-able (because, one presumes, it started out as a anti-diabetic where inject-able was already accepted) …deemed previously out of the question! huhn [shrug]
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That should make people a little nervous. Or at least more nervous than they are, currently, about it. I’ve seen some professional authors reporting that taking the drug has curbed their desire to write. Anecdotes, grain of salt and all that, but curbing desires isn’t all upsides.
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I would say my alcohol consumption is down after I went on it as well. Not quite as much as you but certainly a measurable amount.
I will throw my one data point anecdotal guess on “reducing some of the cravings including those associated with depression “ rather than directly impacting the depression. The reduction of cravings may well have a huge positive impact on the individual and on their depression though that pathway.
However as @anon29537550 said: further Study.
Also possibly a complete rework of the healthcare system south of the border. The stuff is not cheap but it is much less expensive in Canada.
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The rest, as they say, is history. The GLP-1 revolution birthed semaglutide, which became Ozempic and Wegovy, and tirzepatide, which became Mounjaro and Zepbound—blockbuster drugs that are rapidly changing the face of obesity medicine. The drugs work as intended: as powerful modulators of appetite. But at the same time that they have become massive successes, the original science that underpinned their development has fallen apart. The fact that they worked was “serendipity,” Randy Seeley, an obesity researcher at the University of Michigan, told me. (Seeley has also consulted for and received research funding from companies that make GLP-1 drugs.)
Now scientists are beginning to understand why. In recent years, studies have shown that GLP-1 from the gut breaks down quickly and has little effect on our appetites. But the hormone and its receptors are naturally present in many parts of the brain too. These brain receptors are likely the reason the GLP-1 drugs can curb the desire to eat—but also, anecdotally, curb other desires as well. The weight-loss drugs are ultimately drugs for the brain.
I have no financial relationship with Ozempic, though sometimes I suspect that the Atlantic does.
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I have no idea how big of a factor this will turn out to be but some of the anecdotal data seems to indicate that, at least for some people, it may reduce sexual desire as well as the food/drug/alcohol desires that are considered more of an unhealthy vice. Not much in the way of robust published studies for human behavior yet (there is some) but research in mice goes back years.
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I bought stock in Novo Nordisk last year and it’s up 78%. Best investment in my portfolio.
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If you’re feeing nervous about these drugs, we have a little injection you can take!
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Jardiance is now being viewed as a possible Chronic Kidney Disease medication. In addition, both Wegovy and Ozempic are already used with DMII patients for nephrotic protection and of course, the lovely side effect of weight loss.
Jenna, MSN, RN
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Also, I myself felt an immediate effect on my appetite, even with the smallest dose. I’m convinced it affects the brain directly, not just through the digestive system. Mark my words.
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Sung to “Shipoopi”
“Wegovy, Wegovy, Wegovy, the drug that’s hard to get.
Wegovy, Wegovy, Wegovy, and you can’t afford it yet.”
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I’m on Ozempic for Type-2 diabeetus. It has seriously changed my cravings for food. For instance: occasionally my wife buys me a bag of Doritos or chips, which I eat in three reasonable servings, typically over the three nights after I find them in the pantry. My once-a-month treat.
Last month’s bag sat on the counter, in plain view, for two weeks. I eventually ate them, thinking I better do so before they became stale.
The downside is: stinky burps and very slow bowels. So much so that I a) log my poops, and b) I take a gentle laxative 2 days a week to move things along.
Weight’s down ~10% over two year, too.
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So far it seems promising, but I do wonder: Do these kinds of drugs only curb “problematic” lusts or will we end up not caring about anything?
I’ve always thought there’s a non-zero chance that society will fail because people simply lose interest, sort of like Serenity without the Reavers.
Apropos:
https://poorlydrawnlines.com/comic/apocalypse-253/
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I was under the impression we’d already surpassed that point. As a nation, anyway. 
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