There was concern that frequent diabetes medicine might improve the danger of suicide and self-harm. In a brand new examine, led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet and revealed in JAMA Inside Medication, no such danger improve was noticed.
Medication of the kind GLP-1 analogs decrease blood sugar ranges and are utilized by hundreds of thousands of individuals worldwide. They’re primarily used to deal with diabetes, however medicine reminiscent of Ozempic have additionally been proven to be efficient in opposition to weight problems, which has elevated their recognition.
On the similar time, each American and European drug authorities have warned that there could also be dangers related to the medicine.
Final yr, the European Medicines Company (EMA) launched an investigation following round 150 reported doable instances of suicidal ideas and self-injury with use of GLP-1 analogs.
The investigation was accomplished within the spring and primarily based on the restricted information out there on the time, it concluded that there have been no apparent connections. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet can now additional help this conclusion. They’ve analyzed giant quantities of knowledge from folks handled with GLP-1 analogs in Sweden and Denmark .
“We discovered no clear hyperlink between using the medicine and an elevated danger of suicide loss of life, self-harm or despair and anxiety-related issues. That is reassuring,” says Björn Pasternak, principal researcher on the Division of Medication, Solna, Karolinska Institutet, and one of many examine’s lead authors.
The info contains roughly 300,000 adults aged 18–84 who began therapy with both GLP-1 analogs or SGLT2 inhibitors, one other sort of diabetes treatment, in the course of the years 2013–2021.
After a imply follow-up interval of simply over two years, there was no obvious improve within the proportion of people that dedicated suicide, engaged in self-harm, or suffered from despair or anxiety-related issues amongst customers of GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Peter Ueda, assistant professor on the similar division and one of many examine’s primary authors, however emphasizes the significance of bigger research as extra information is collected.
“It is very important particularly look at folks with earlier self-harm or suicidal ideas as they’re at elevated danger and it’s doable that the drug’s security profile differs on this group,” he says.
