A new observational study found that people taking Ozempic and Wegovy appeared to experience suicidal thoughts at a higher rate than people on other drugs, though experts raised concerns about the methodology and the findings contradict what some other studies have found about the class of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs.
Academic researchers analyzed a World Health Organization database that tracks suspected adverse drug reactions, and found that there was a 45% greater rate of reports of suicidal thoughts associated with semaglutide, the ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, compared with all other drugs in the database.
When comparing semaglutide specifically against other diabetes and obesity drugs — including Farxiga, metformin, and orlistat — the reseachers again saw a higher rate of suicidal ideation reported for semaglutide, according to the study, published Tuesday in JAMA Network Open.
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