Doctors issue warning after children as young as 10 use drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Ozempic is an FDA-approved prescription drug for people with type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy is FDA-approved for chronic obesity. These are the brand names for semaglutide, a GLP-1 receptor agonist that works in the brain to affect satiety, and they’re Hollywood’s latest weight-loss trend.
“Several GLP-1s are approved for use in children as young as 12 who have obesity and in children as young as 10 who have type 2 diabetes,” Dr. Kay Rhee — medical director of Rady Children’s Hospital’s Behavioral Medicine Unit — said Newsweek.
“[They’re] it’s not used as often for young children with obesity,” she added. “And we don’t know what the risks are for really young children because most parents and doctors don’t want to use these drugs in children that young. At this point, we really don’t know what the long-term consequences are.”
Furthermore, Dr. Brian Erly, EDCare’s medical director, explained that there are concerns about whether children are thoroughly evaluated before these drugs are prescribed.
“Children’s bodies grow and develop at different rates, and a child who develops later than their peers may have a high adjusted BMI,” he told the newspaper. “Studies have shown that individuals who stop taking GLP-1 regain much of their previous weight, so many people can take the medication for many years. The effects of long-term exposure to the medication in children whose bodies are still developing and growing may be different than in fully grown children. adults.”
Prescriptions for Ozempic and similar drugs have increased by 600% among teenagers and young adults
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“For example, there are dramatic changes in brain development that continue into our mid-20s, and our bones also don’t reach their maximum strength until well into adulthood,” he continued. “We don’t know how the caloric deficit caused by taking GLP-1 would change that development.”
A report earlier this year found that the number of young adults and adolescents being prescribed Ozempic and similar drugs has skyrocketed, climbing 600% in a three-year period.
The study, published in Journal of the American Medical Associationlooked at the frequency of prescriptions given to adolescents (defined as 12-17 years) and young adults (18-25 years).
In 2020, 8,700 prescriptions were written per month for patients of that age group. But by 2023, more than 60,000 adolescents and young adults were receiving these drugs a month.
At the time, Dr. Joyce Lee, a pediatrician and diabetes expert at the University of Michigan, told The Associated Press, “We really need to think about the long-term safety and effectiveness of these drugs for this population.”
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education