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Timely Analysis

Scrutinizing effects of widely popular diabetes and weight-loss drugs

As two diabetes and weight-loss drugs became enormously popular last year, Case Western Reserve researchers swiftly addressed a critical question: Do they increase the risk of suicidal thoughts or actions?

They don’t, according to the federally funded study published in the journal Nature Medicine involving the drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. And just days later, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) reported that its preliminary evaluation also found no evidence of causation.

“The FDA cited our study as an important contributor to that decision,” said Rong Xu, PhD, a study co-author and director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery at the CWRU School of Medicine.

Ozempic and Wegovy share the same active ingredient, semaglutide.

Xu, medical school colleagues and Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute for Drug Abuse, began their research after the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the FDA started investigating anecdotal reports that people taking semaglutide had thoughts of self-harm. The FDA said it will also continue to look into the issue.

The CWRU-led team examined records of more than 1.8 million people with type 2 diabetes or obesity and found a lower risk of suicidal thoughts in those taking semaglutide, compared to those taking other drugs for the two conditions.

“It’s important to know that prior suggestions that the drug might trigger suicidal thoughts are not borne out in this very large and diverse population in the U.S.,” said Pamela Davis, MD, a study co-author and the Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor.

Nathan Berger, MD, the Hanna-Payne Professor of Experimental Medicine, was the study’s third key faculty member. He launched the recent research, first studying the effects of semaglutides and similar agents on cancer risk and then extended the examination to suicidal ideation risks. He and Davis also are Distinguished University Professors.

The researchers are now exploring whether semaglutide reduces obsessive thinking and addictive behaviors by acting on the brain’s dopamine-reward system. They recently published a study providing early evidence that the drug reduced the incidence and relapse of cannabis use disorder.

— PATTY ZAMORA