Warning: this article features references to suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro have seen a dramatic uptick in usage across the United States, but patients have been warned to take care surrounding a particularly alarming side effect that might crop up while you're taking it.
The benefits of these weight loss drugs, also referred to as 'GLP-1s', have been well documented as many have taken to social media and shared their impressive results.
Drugs like Ozempic have proven to be extremely effective in allowing people to lose weight over a short period of time due to how it affects your body, and one study has even linked the medication to cancer reduction in some cases.
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However, there is seemingly a long list of side effects that you also have to contend with if you want to see the benefits, and they can range from something as simple (albeit horrible) as nausea, to the absurd like changed skin and even issues with toilet trips.
There is, however, the emergence of one particularly alarming new side effect that some experts are have a growing concern about, and it might be something to take note of if you're currently using a GLP-1, or plan to take one in the future.
As shared by the New York Post, researchers at Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) have issued new safety warnings regarding the risk of suicide for those taking weight loss drugs.
This was prompted by a recent study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) that linked several cases of suicidal behavior to weight loss drugs, and the TGA used this as a means to investigate further.
Research collected up until September this year featured 72 reports in total of suicidal ideation, with six related to depression and four attempted suicides from that group, all of which were using GLP-1s.
This remains far from enough evidence to cement a link between the drugs and mental health emergencies, but it has still caused the TGA to urge people to "monitor patients for the emergence or worsening of depression, suicidal thoughts or behaviors and/or any unusual changes in mood or behavior."
The original study from the WHO highlighted semaglutide in particular as prompting a potential link to suicidial behavior, which is the medication branded specifically as Ozempic and Wegovy, but the TGA's warning applies to weight loss drugs as a whole, including products such as Mounjaro, Saxenda, and Trulicity.