New weight loss medications are all the rage. The weight loss benefits seem too good to be true and many are “waiting for the other shoe to drop”. But research continues to find benefits in many areas of physical and psychological functioning. However, there are a few downsides of GLP-1 medications like Wegovy or Ozempic and eating disorders or unhealthy eating.
Given the effects of GLP-1 medications, we would expect them to have positive impacts on behaviors like emotional eating or binge eating. Afterall, GLP-1s reduce activation of food signals in the brain, leading to less “attractiveness” to certain foods.
However, initial research finds that GLP-1 medications may be less effective for individuals emotional eating (aka stress-eating). A recent study found that those with high emotional eating scores showed decreased sensitivity to the effects of GLP-1s. This was especially the case in areas of the brain associated with food signals.
Other research finds that medications like Ozempic can increase the stress response in the short term. Increased stress response might lead to increased emotional eating. But this study did not measure how these medications affect eating behaviors themselves in the short term. And the study participants were rodents, so there’s that. Are there similar effects on humans?
Other research finds no effect for Wegovy or Ozempic and eating disorders. These medications do not have an impact on binge-eating behavior in particular (commonly experienced among GLP-1 candidates). Other findings suggest some promise for binge-eating, but that larger studies and more of them need to be done.
So what about other eating disorders, like bulimia or anorexia? It’s possible individuals with those conditions would rely on these medications to maintain or lose high amounts of weight.
Unfortunately, there is still so much we don’t know about Wegovy or Ozempic and other eating disorders. The National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) published a good article with medically-informed points about potential risks for those populations. It also provides good information to provide therapist resources for what to discuss with clients.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about effects of Wegovy or Ozempic and other eating disorders. But what we do know is that it does not appear to be a miracle drug (yet?) for emotional-eating or binge-eating. There may even be negative effects in some cases. We’ll see how this one shakes out, but this means clients should still benefit from therapy strategies (e.g., CBT) to address emotional-eating and binge-eating.
