Ozempic for weight loss. This is the third post in our Ozempic, also known as semaglutide or Wegovy, series! In the previous posts, we discussed some Ozempic side effects, but not really any psychiatric ones. A recent study came out discussing psychiatric adverse effects that may occur with the use of Ozempic and similar drugs
How safe is ozempic for weight loss, we’ll continue investigating that!
Oh man, it’s the 26th day of Ramadan when I’m writing this post. The first 15 days were easy for me, after that, it got tough. I will miss it a lot when it’s over though. It’s a spiritual month with lots of great food!
We’re here to talk about Ozempic though! Ozempic for weight loss side effects, psychiatric ones reported in particular. If you are losing weight, but experiencing mental disorders, that’s definitely bad!
I’ll be looking at the study, “Psychiatric adverse events associated with semaglutide, liraglutide and tirzepatide: a pharmacovigilance analysis of individual case safety reports submitted to the EudraVigilance database”. As you can see it has other drugs in the same class as Ozempic in it as well.
Let’s get into it, Ozempic for weight loss side effects!
Ozempic For Weight Loss – Psychiatric Adverse Effects
If you want more information on Ozempic how to use, Ozempic dosing, other Ozempic side effects or Ozempic for weight loss results, please read my previous two posts. They will most likely answer all your questions. I will link them below:
- Ozempic For Weight Loss – 5 Things You MUST KNOW Reviewed By a Practicing Pharmacist
- Ozempic For Weight Loss – STEP-5 Trial Reviewed By a Practicing PHARMACIST
As I previously said, we’ll be discussing the trial, “Psychiatric adverse events associated with Ozempic, liraglutide and tirzepatide: a pharmacovigilance analysis of individual case safety reports submitted to the EudraVigilance database”.
It’s an article that was published in the International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy, on January 24th 2024. Psychiatric adverse effects were reported 1/1/21 to 3/20/23, so, two years.
If you don’t like data, just skip to the “discussion” section for your answers.
Also, this a broad reporting of the study, I’m not going into every little detail, that would get too confusing for many people. Once you have a good idea of the data, you can discuss with your own health care provider if these drugs might be an appropriate choice for you.
1. Ozempic For Weight Loss – Study Characteristics
This was systematic review. What this means is, the investigators used repeatable method to find, select and combine all available evidence.
In this instance, this study looked at 13 different trials that had already been conducted; the study then looked for reported psychiatric adverse effects reported.
All the data had already been reported to EudraVigilance. This is a European database that is maintained by the European Medicines Agency. It supports and monitors the safe and effective use of medicines that have been authorized or studied in clinical trial in Europe.
These psychiatric adverse events were recorded regardless of the dose of the medication, the frequency the drugs was given, or the formulation of the medication (injection or oral, etc.).
2. Study Results
Here is chart of the total amount of side effects (referred to as adverse drug reactions in the study itself) that occurred. Also, the amount that occurred with each drug:
|
Side Effects (Total = 31,444) |
|
|
Semaglutide (Ozempic) |
13,956 (44.4% of total) |
|
Liraglutide |
16,748 (53.3%) |
| Tirzepatide |
740 (2.3%) |
Out of the 31,444 side effects reported, only 481 (1.53%) were psychiatric events among 372 different participants; the number of psychiatric were higher than the number of participants because each participants would experience more than one event.
Out of the 372 participants, here is how many were reported per drug (they way this data was reported, it makes it look like each participants only experienced one psychiatric side effect, I don’t know why the study did that):
- Ozempic: 210 (56.%)
- Liraglutide: 147 (39.5%)
- Tirzepatide: 15 (4%)
242 (65%) of participants were women. Men accounted for 108 (29%) and 22 (6%) not specified.
Next here is chart of the number of adverse psychiatric effects per age range:
Most of the adverse events occurred in the 18-64 years of age. It is the biggest range, by a long shot.
The most common psychiatric side effect reported was depression, followed by anxiety and then suicidal ideation. Below is a chart to lay those out in more detail
|
Adverse Psychiatric Events |
||||
|
Depression |
Anxiety | Suicidal Ideation |
Totals |
|
|
Liraglutide |
66 | 60 | 29 | 155 |
|
Semaglutide (Ozempic) |
117 | 71 | 40 |
228 |
| Tirzepatide | 4 | 13 | 4 |
21 |
| Totals | 187 | 144 | 73 |
404 |
As you can see, the most psychiatric side effects were reported for Ozempic and least for tirzepatide. Does this mean tirzepatide is superior in terms of these potential side effects? Not quite, in my opinion.
I would want a study to be conducted that had an equal number of participants for each drug per group. Then, that could be fairly assess that.
Right now, this study is just assessing side effects reported to a database.
Ozempic had more side effects as reported by this study, but I feel as if more studies are done on Ozempic, so of course more side effects will be reported.
Here is a further breakdown of suicide for the participants for each drug, because, that’s a pretty bad side effect:
|
Suicidal Adverse Events |
||||||
|
|
Suicide Attempt | Suicidal Ideation | Completed Suicide | Depression With Suicide | Suspected Suicide | Totals |
|
Liraglutide |
7 | 29 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
46 (45.5%) |
|
Semaglutide (Ozempic) |
5 | 40 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
51 (50.5%) |
|
Tirzepatide |
0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
4 (4%) |
| Total | 12 | 73 | 4 | 10 | 2 |
101 |
7 people using liraglutide attempted suicide while 5 people using Ozempic did. 4 people in the liraglutide group completed suicide. None in the Ozempic group.
It was reported 62% of suicidal events occurred in females.
Now, can we assume these events are more likely in females? No. Women comprised 65.1% of the individuals in this study. That’s well over half, so of course more women were going to report side effects because there were more of them in the study.
The study also went onto report that 44.6% of suicidal events occurred in the age group of 18-65. That’s a large group, they also comprised of 50% of the study.
This group should have been further broken down. I wouldn’t be comfortable saying individuals in this group are more likely to experience suicidal events.
Another piece of data that was reported was 193 (51.9%) participants were health care professionals and 179 (48.1%) were not. I’ll get more into this in the discussion session.
The last piece of data points I found important was, if participants were able to recover from the psychiatrics side effects by the end of the studies:
- Not recovering/not resolving: 66 (17.7%)
- Recovering/Resolving: 34 (9.1%)
- Recovered/Resolved: 88 (23.7%)
- Life threatening/fatal: 20 (5.4%)
- Unknown: 164 (44.1%)
I’ll discuss this in the discussion section.
3. Discussion
So, lets first start out by looking at the big picture.
There were a total of 31,444 side effects reported. Out of them, only 481 (1.53%) were psychiatric side effects. So, not very likely per the data.
Now, there were a lot of weaknesses to this study. This study relied on a database where other studies reported these side effects. There could have some side effects that were not reported or reported incorrectly.
Also, baseline characteristics of participants weren’t equal. There were more females in the study, so of course more females were going to report psychiatric side effects as opposed to males. There needs to be a study conducted with an EQUAL number of males and females.
Same goes for age group, almost half of the participants assessed in this study were age 18-64, so of course nearly half of the side effects reported were from this age group. It doesn’t tell us anything that this age group experienced more psychiatric side effects.
Thirdly, an equal number of participants need to be assessed on all three drugs. This study makes it look like tirzepatide is superior in terms of psychiatric side effects. The thing is, how many studies have been done on this drug? It seems more studies have been done on Ozempic
Also, if the participants had underlying psychiatric conditions prior to taking the drugs already, was not assessed. Did they have depression, anxiety or suicidal ideation at baseline? Did taking one of these drugs make it worse? Or did they have other factors going on their lives during the study period?
I don’t believe this study can provide hard evidence that one of these three drugs causes more psychiatric side effects than other. If you are interpreting it differently, please share.
If you just care about Ozempic data, it might cause psychiatric side effects, not likely, but it could. Prior to saying it does, I would want to see if the participants already had psychiatric disorders or other parts of their life caused the psychiatric disorders.
The next point of data I’ll reiterate what I reported in the results section:
- Not recovering/not resolving: 66 (17.7%)
- Recovering/Resolving: 34 (9.1%)
- Recovered/Resolved: 88 (23.7%)
- Life threatening/fatal: 20 (5.4%)
- Unknown: 164 (44.1%)
This is important to keep in mind, as you have to take into account if you will recover from these side effects or not after stopping the drug. This would have so many other factors associated with it such as other personal life events.
One last point I will point out is 193 (51.9%) of the participants in this study were health care professional. It’s not specified exactly what specific profession. That’s interesting as you’d expect healthcare professionals to already be healthy and not need medications for weight loss.
Are they overweight to high stress jobs? Are those high stress jobs on top of Ozempic for weight loss leading to these psychiatric side effects? Would be a fantastic topic to look into in the future!
Well, that’s all I got for you BEAUTIFUL people this week! If you have any questions, please ask! This post was all about Ozempic for weight loss – psychiatric side effects!
Disclaimer: I’m not your doctor. Please consult your doctor, nutritionist or any health care professional before making any changes in your own lifestyle. These blogs are just me sharing my knowledge for you reading entertainment purpose only. None of this is medical advice.
Other Posts You May Like
Ozempic For Weight Loss – STEP-5 Trial Reviewed By a Practicing PHARMACIST
EVERYTHING About HIIT Cardio and Weight/Fat Loss
7 Insane Reason You Are Losing Fat But Gaining Weight That Everyone NEEDS to Know
Resources
-
Tobaiqy, M., Elkout, H. Psychiatric adverse events associated with semaglutide, liraglutide and tirzepatide: a pharmacovigilance analysis of individual case safety reports submitted to the EudraVigilance database. Int J Clin Pharm 46, 488–495 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11096-023-01694-7
2. Turney, Shaun. “Systematic Review | Definition, Example, & Guide.” Scribbr, 20 Nov. 2023, www.scribbr.com/methodology/systematic-review.
drug ozempic for weight loss, ozempic how does it work for weight loss, ozempic results for weight loss, ozempic for weight loss before and after, ozempic for weight loss non diabetic, ozempic injection for weight loss, side effects of ozempic for weight loss, maximum dose of ozempic for weight loss, ozempic dosing for weight loss, ozempic how to use