GLP-1 Drugs As Mood-Brighteners?

We first wrote about GLP-1 receptor agonists (i.e. semaglutide drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy) a couple of years ago when popularity was just beginning to take off:

Semaglutide for Weight Loss?

However, as we at that time had room only to touch briefly on the side effects and what happens when you stop taking it, you might also want to check out:

What happens when I stop taking a drug like Ozempic or Mounjaro?

…and:

Considering taking Wegovy to lose weight? Here are the risks and benefits – and how it differs from Ozempic

Body & brain

A lot of mental health disorders, and/or the medications for them, can affect body weight (in most cases: increasing it, the eating disorders usually do the opposite, unhealthily).

In the case of antidepressants, we talked about this here: How Much Weight Gain Do Antidepressants Cause?

…but there are other contenders that are less common (but still very common in the grand scheme of things), such many antipsychotics and mood stabilizers; in both of those cases the most widely-prescribed drugs have weight gain as a side effect.

So, a large (n=25,677) research review was conducted by Dr. Sigrid Breit & Dr. Daniela Hubl, looking into the safety and efficacy of GLP-1 RAs in patients with (and without) those conditions and/or medications.

In nutshell: they found that as well as being safe and effective for weight loss, they had mood-improving effects too.

Some take-aways from their research (if, for brevity, we skip over the metabolic benefits, weight loss, etc, which are all well-established):

• Five different studies showed mental health improvements in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
• No increased risk of suicidal ideation or behavior was found with GLP-1 RAs in people with or without mental illness*.

*in contrast, see: How Serious Are Antidepressant Side Effects?, in which we discuss the potential for (uncommon, but it happens sometimes) paradoxical increase in suicidality upon taking antidepressants

You may be thinking: “That’s all great, but I don’t have a mental illness”

If so, then… Congratulations! And also: there are benefits regardless: GLP-1 RAs also improved mood and emotional well-being in people without mental illness, while outperforming insulin and other diabetic drugs.

As to how it works for mental health, there’s a lot that’s not yet known, but:

❝GLP-1 RAs may have antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects, potentially due to their anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties, which can also help reduce neuroinflammation.❞

~ Dr. Sigrid Breit

See also: The Inflamed Mind: A Radical New Approach To Depression – by Dr. Edward Bullmore, for how that works

As for the research we’ve been writing about today, you can read the paper in full, here:

The effect of GLP-1RAs on mental health and psychotropics-induced metabolic disorders: A systematic review

Want a natural method instead?

For general GLP-1RA effects:

It is possible to get many of the effects of GLP-1 RAs without taking GLP-1 RAs, by enjoying foods that increase incretin, a hormone group (the most well-known of which is GLP-1) that slows down stomach emptying, which means a gentler blood sugar curve and feeling fuller for longer. It also acts on the hypothalamus, controlling appetite via the brain too (signalling fullness and reducing hunger).

For what foods to focus on, see: 5 Ways To Naturally Boost The “Ozempic Effect” ← this is from Dr. Jason Fung, who is perhaps most well-known for his work in functional medicine for reversing diabetes, and he’s once again giving us sound advice about metabolic hormone-hacking with dietary tweaks!

However! If you (correctly) think that there’s a lot we don’t know about how GLP-1 RAs affect (or indeed, effect) weight loss and satiety, it’s nothing compared to what we don’t know about how GLP-1 RAs improve mood, which is, well, as you saw, researchers are guessing, so far. Which is how science should be! Because those guesses can be formulated into hypotheses that can be tested and then either furthered (if the results supported the hypothesis) or changed (if the results didn’t support the hypothesis). But guesses aren’t always where we want to be at when it comes to our personal health, so here are some more evidence-based approaches:

• Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key! ← Ok, so this one’s not “natural”, but it’s worth mentioning, as understanding this can avoid a lot of disappointment with the wrong antidepressants
• 12 Foods That Fight Depression & Anxiety
• Behavioral Activation Against Depression & Anxiety

Take care!