A research team found "extensive changes" on brain scans of 13 young women taking
GLP-1 drugs, reports the Washington Post:
Within only a few months, the brain connections in the salience network, which helps target attention, had multiplied... ["We didn't expect to see this effect, and we really don't know what it means," said an assistant professor assisting the research.] Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs were initially understood as a metabolism breakthrough: medicines that act like hormones to control hunger, blood sugar and weight. But as researchers probe deeper into how the drugs work, early evidence suggests that GLP-1s may also be reshaping parts of the brain.
Tens of millions of people are now taking the medications worldwide, turning what began as an obesity and diabetes treatment into what could be modern medicine's largest unplanned neuroscience experiments... Long before Oprah Winfrey and social media influencers helped popularize GLP-1 drugs, physician-scientist Lorenzo Leggio was studying them as a possible addiction treatment... Several major studies examining GLP-1 drugs on nicotine dependence, opioid- and cocaine-use disorders, gambling addiction and binge eating are also underway. "It's very exciting times, but we don't fully understand how it works," Leggio said...
As evidence has grown that inflammation, metabolism and mental health may be far more connected than scientists once believed, researchers have become intrigued by patients who say GLP-1 drugs appear to ease anxiety, compulsive thinking and emotional distress. Daniel Drucker, a University of Toronto researcher and GLP-1 drug pioneer who receives funding from several drugmakers, said researchers are investigating the medications across a variety of psychiatric and neurological conditions, though none are approved for them. "We have so many anecdotal reports: They were treated for blood sugar and then they felt much happier. Or they took one dose of the drug and their brain fog cleared," he said.
The article suggests social media complaints "raise deeper questions about what, exactly, these drugs are changing.
"If GLP-1s alter the brain systems involved in reward, craving and motivation, researchers wonder, where is the line between quieting a person's destructive impulses and reshaping personality itself?"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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