While supporting the NIH findings, the FDA cautioned that it could not definitively rule out a small risk based on reviews of suicidal-thought/action reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) and said it would continue investigating the issue. While self-reported symptoms on social media don’t definitively prove impacts, the analysis provides insights requiring further study. Alexis Conason, a clinical psychologist and certified eating disorder specialist-consultant, is concerned this renewed attention to weight loss presupposes eating disorders.
Ms. Conason told The Epoch Times that some patients are exhibiting “atypical anorexia”—meeting anorexia criteria but having average weight or being slightly overweight—while taking the drugs. These patients are consuming minimal calories a day, “sometimes reporting lightheadedness, fainting episodes, [and other] health abnormalities,” she said.
Ms. Conason claims those with atypical anorexia have just as severe medical complications as people with low-weight anorexia, but medical professionals have not widely recognized it. Given the complex relationship between weight loss and mental health and the novelty of these drugs, more research into psychological effects is ongoing.
Dr. Shebani Sethi, a clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine’s School of Psychiatric and Behavioral Sciences, founded the Metabolic Psychiatry Clinical program, a first-of-its-kind clinical program to address this intrica.
