Prescriptions for GLP-1 drugs have doubled among people with obesity At the same time, the proportion of people using the drugs to control type 2 diabetes has declined Semaglutide is being used disproportionately by females, whites and people with obesity TUESDAY, July 23, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The boom in using GLP-1 drugs like to treat obesity has resulted in a bust regarding the drugs’ original purpose, which was to treat type 2 diabetes, a new study finds. New prescriptions for these drugs have doubled among people who have obesity but not diabetes, investigators found. As a result, drug shortages have triggered a drop in new prescriptions for type 2 diabetes, even though Ozempic and Mounjaro were initially developed as diabetes drugs, the researchers said.
Both drugs were later approved for weight loss under different brand names, and . “Essentially, after the medication was approved for obesity..
. use took off so quickly that we lost control and vision of how fast people were picking up these medications,” said lead researcher , medical director of the Cedars-Sinai GI Motility Program. For the study, researchers analyzed the medical data of about 45 million Americans between 2011 and 2023.
About 1 million people became new GLP-1 users during that period in time, results show. Researchers classified them based on whether they had diabetes, obesity or some other related medical condition. GLP-1 drugs work by adjusting a person’s hormone levels and suppressing a.