Weight loss jabs may help with anxiety and depression, study finds | U

Drugs used for weight loss could help reduce anxiety and depression, a new study revealed.

Ozempic and Wegovy, which are two common obesity jabs, may help alleviate the symptoms of mental health conditions.

They can also help cut the risk of drug abuse and binge drinking, scientists discovered.

An international team of experts analysed the impact these medications had on mental health issues, using data on patients diagnosed with anxiety or depression.

They studied figures from Sweden on more than 95,000 people over a 13-year period, including 22,480 who used semaglutide – the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy.

Both were linked with a lower risk of worsening mental illness compared to those who didn’t use the injections, the scientists found.

Semaglutide was associated with a 44% lower risk of worsening depression and a 38% decreased risk of worsening anxiety.

It was also linked to a lower risk of substance abuse, the experts said.

Another active ingredient known as liraglutide, which is used in Saxenda, was also linked to a lower risk of worsening depression.

Wegovy is regularly prescribed on the NHS to treat weight loss, while Ozempic should only given out for diabetes, according to the Department of Health.

Writing in The Lancet Psychiatry, the study authors from University of Eastern Finland, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and Griffith University in Australia, said: “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.”

Ozempic and Wegovy both have the same active ingredient, semaglutide, a drug known as a GLP-1 receptor agonists, that mimics a type of hormone which lowers blood sugar and reduces appetite and is also used to treat Type 2 diabetes.