GLP-1 JABS may be able to ease symptoms of anxiety and depression by 40 per cent, a new study suggests.
The blockbuster jabs slashed mental health hospital visits – and helped patients cut alcohol use too.
Weight-loss jab Wegovy and type 2 diabetes medication Ozempic both have the same active ingredient, semaglutide.
Using semaglutide made people less likely to take time off work or be admitted to hospital for psychiatric reasons, the international research team suggested.
Previous research has linked weight loss injections to improvements in mental health.
A King’s College London study last year found that the drugs improved mood along with physical health.
Khalida Ismail, a professor of psychiatry and medicine, who led the review, previously told The Sun: “GLP-1s [as weight loss jabs are also called] have been a game changer for people living with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
“The possibility that they may also help mental disorders could be revolutionary for this group too and should be studied.”
However, it has also been reported that some weight loss jab users may also experience worsening anxiety and depression.
The conditions aren’t listed as official side effects of the drugs, but data from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s Yellow Card Scheme shows 2,849 reports of psychiatric disorders linked to the jabs, of which 11 have been fatal.
For the new study, researchers from the University of Eastern Finland, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and Griffith University in Australia assessed whether taking weight loss and diabetes drugs impacted mental health.
Using data from health registries in Sweden, they examined information on people with a diagnosis of anxiety or depression who were also taking anti-diabetic medication between 2009 and 2022.
They looked at data from more than 95,000 patients, including 22,480 people who used GLP-1s.
Writing in The Lancet Psychiatry, the authors said semaglutide and liraglutide – another GLP-1 sold under the brand name Saxenda – were associated with lower risk of mental health issues compared to non-use of this type of drug.
Semaglutide were 44 per cent less likely to experience worsening depression and had a 38 per cent decreased risk of worsening anxiety.
It was also linked to a lower risk of substance abuse.
User were 47 per cent less likely to need hospital care of take time off work due to alcohol or drugs.
One of the study’s authors, Prof Mark Taylor from Griffith University, said: “An earlier study found the use of GLP-1 medications to be associated with a reduced risk of alcohol use disorder.
“Alcohol-related problems often have downstream effects on mood and anxiety, so we expected the effect to be positive on these as well.”
Liraglutide was also linked to a lower risk of worsening depression.
“For anxiety and depression that co-occur with diabetes and obesity, semaglutide and, to a lesser extent, liraglutide might be useful dually effective therapeutic options,” the study authors wrote.
Diabetes and obesity are associated with an increased risk of mental health symptoms.
Similarly, people with mental disorders have an elevated risk of diseases such as obesity and diabetes.
It wasn’t clear from the study whether participants’ improved mental health was due to losing weight or whether the drugs had a direct effect on the brain.
Research director Markku Lahteenvuo, from the University of Eastern Finland, said: “Because this is a registry-based study, we cannot determine exactly why or how these medications affect mood symptoms, but the association was quite strong.
“It is possible that, in addition to factors such as reduced alcohol consumption, weight loss-related improvements in body image, or relief associated with better glycaemic control in diabetes, there may also be direct neurobiological mechanisms involved – for example, through changes in the functioning of the brain’s reward system.”
It comes as a separate study examined accidental pregnancies among people taking GLP-1 receptor agonists during early pregnancy.
Researchers from Denmark wanted to assess whether taking the drugs for diabetes or to reduce weight was linked to the risk of pre-term birth – when a baby is born early, before the 37th week of pregnancy.
Pre-term birth can pose risks to a baby.
Academics looked at Danish health registries for 480,231 women, with a combined 756,636 pregnancies.
Some 529 had accidentally taken GLP-1s liraglutide or semaglutide in early pregnancy.
They found that exposure to GLP-1 receptor agonists was with increased pre-term birth risk when used for diabetes treatment, but not among those taking the treatment for weight management.
Researchers said this suggested that “the underlying diabetes rather than the medication may be the causal factor”.
