Ozempic Is Leading To Scary Cases Of ‘Agonorexia’
The Dark Side of Ozempic — Experts Sound The Alarm Over Shocking New Side Effect
Ozempic and Wegovy are surging in use as millions of Americans turn to GLP-1 medications for weight loss, but medical experts are raising alarms about a concerning potential consequence: restrictive eating disorders, a condition marked by severely limited food intake. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this disorder is not driven by poor body image or a desire to alter one’s weight, but by the “fear and anxiety about food or the consequences of eating,” the website notes.
Explaining the dilemma during an interview with the New York Post on Dec. 12, Dr. Zoe Ross-Nash, a licensed psychologist, shared that GLP-1 drugs work by imitating one or two naturally occurring hormones that suppress appetite, slow digestion, and help regulate blood sugar. Because of this, users often feel fuller longer and consume smaller portions. However, this appetite suppression can sometimes have unintended effects, including an uptick in intrusive thoughts about eating, which may become problematic for certain individuals.
“I think there should be a button that you have to click saying ‘I am consciously making a choice that could really harm my health,’” Dr. Zoe Ross-Nash told the New York Post. “Like on cigarette boxes, it says, ‘This could cause cancer.’ OK, well, this [drug] could cause an eating disorder.”
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GLP-1 medications have earned widespread acclaim for helping individuals who are overweight or obese lose weight rapidly. They are also prescribed for several medical purposes, including the treatment of type 2 diabetes, lowering cardiovascular risks, and managing obstructive sleep apnea. Still, Dr. Thea Gallagher, a clinical psychologist at NYU Langone, cautioned that the very effects that make these drugs appealing can pose risks for some users, calling them “a slippery slope,” causing people with past eating disorders and those who never had one, to stop eating regularly due to fear of weight gain.
“A lot of people with restrictive eating disorders — what they’re looking for is to not be hungry,” she explained to the New York Post. “So I think the idea is like, ‘Oh my gosh, wouldn’t it be nice to not have that food noise, because I’m trying to not eat at all, or really very minimally?’ That could be very dangerous.”
People with eating disorders can bypass the requirements needed to obtain GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, the health experts said.
Although prescriptions are generally limited to patients who meet strict requirements, such as having a BMI of 30 or higher, both Dr. Gallagher and Dr. Ross-Nash said they have treated individuals with eating disorders who were able to bypass those safeguards and obtain GLP-1 medications.
“I had a patient who was like, ‘Yeah, I lied about my weight so I could get it prescribed,’” Dr. Gallagher noted.
Experts also warn that even when these drugs are prescribed appropriately, they can still prompt relapses in people with a prior history of disordered eating. Some users of Wegovy and Ozempic have reported side effects such as vomiting, a behavior common with people battling eating disorders.
“I’ve seen people relapse into their history of bulimia just from food poisoning because vomiting is triggering,” Dr. Ross-Nash explained. Nausea is also a side effect brought on by GLP-1 use. The health expert said she has seen patients purge food in the past due to their stomachs feeling unsettled.
“So not only are we restricting because we don’t feel good, but then we’re also purging the food that is in our system because we’re nauseous.”
They can also be harmful to people who do not have a history of an eating disorder, making them feel like “a failure” if they gain weight back after seeing results, fueling an unhealthy perception about weight and food. Notably, a 2023 study published by the Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics found that “rebound weight gain” occurred in users who stopped taking the medication. According to the data, most people who take Ozempic or Wegovy tend to see dramatic weight gain within a year of stopping their injections.
How do you stop these troubling side effects?
To better safeguard patients, both Dr. Ross-Nash and Dr. Gallagher advise that GLP-1 medications be used under the guidance of a mental health professional in addition to a primary care provider — regardless of whether someone has a history of eating disorders.
“Weight-loss medication can affect anyone, so I don’t think it just has to be limited to individuals with an eating disorder history,” Dr. Ross-Nash added.
These warnings come as public concern grows around increasingly thin celebrity appearances — regardless of whether they are using GLP-1s — and fears that this trend could reignite early-2000s weight stigma or revive the 90s-era “heroin chic” aesthetic.
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