I often report on teen mental health. So, after the weight-loss drug Wegovy was approved for kids as young as 12 late last year, I wondered if using an appetite suppressant in this still-developing age group could raise the risk of eating disorders and other mental-health concerns.
The short answer: it’s not clear yet. There isn't much information about the long-term use of Wegovy—a semaglutide medication, like its sibling drug Ozempic—in adolescents and teenagers, so it’s not certain how it may affect growing minds and bodies over time. The data that are currently available, however, look promising. Wegovy appears to help teens with obesity lose significant weight, potentially preventing or reversing complications and improving life quality.
Some doctors did voice concerns about unintended side effects, but most felt Wegovy offered significant-enough benefits to justify its use. “If you were to think about any other condition, where a new medication could change the lives of kids who otherwise had no options, we would not be discussing whether we should use this medication or not,” says Dr. Raquel Hernandez, director of the Healthy Weight Initiative at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
"People think of forgetting as a deficiency in memory, but it has its own virtues. It cleans out our experience of the world, and allows us to see things more fully unencumbered."
—Robert Kraft, professor of cognitive psychology at Otterbein University in Ohio
If you were forwarded this and want to sign up to receive it daily, click here.
Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and Angela Haupt, and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
