Ozempic and Eating Disorder Treatment

A few months ago, I wrote a post about the exploding Ozempic craze in this country. My initial thoughts were too quick and reactionary, and I hope to speak more evenly to the point in this post.

The medicalization of weight loss—through drugs and surgeries—is here to stay. Medicine treats maintaining a low weight as a virtue signifier of both health and morality with little scientific data to use as proof. With the entire medical community in tow, pharmaceutical companies and surgical centers continue to grow and provide more and more powerful and expensive means to produce weight loss without any concern for long term health risks of these interventions.

Ozempic and its cousins are the newest venture in pharma to capitalize on the desire to lose weight. Never has such a powerful medication for weight loss existed, and the financial windfall already portends many more medications to come. Online doctors are prescribing these medications to anyone who asks. Pharmacies can’t keep enough stock on the shelves. Canadian pharmacies stopped sending the drugs to insatiable US customers. And in some communities, literally everyone is on these drugs.

It’s a grand experiment to see the effects of a relatively new drug on millions of people.

Railing against the downside of this kind of medication has merit. It’s easy to find a slew of articles exploring the myriad concerns about Ozempic. We can’t ignore the new reality we all have to face including the effect on people with eating disorders.

Ozempic is a weekly shot which leads to prolonged decreased appetite, slowed digestion and weight loss. No medication has ever combined these three effects so powerfully and without interruption. Despite the minimal knowledge of long term effects, withdrawal syndromes and potential medical concerns, the drug’s effect is too strong for many to resist.

In the communities already focused on weight loss drugs or surgeries, many if not most people are already on the drug.

Acceptance of a medication like this as the norm only reinforces fat phobia, the erroneous link between weight and health and the vilification of fat.

For many people with eating disorders, the draw to try this medication will be too strong for to resist. Clinicians need to be prepared to see people with eating disorders on these drugs, understand the complicated factors around the decision to go off or stay on the drug and become familiar with withdrawal.

In addition, people with eating disorders are already witnessing others rapidly losing weight, a huge trigger. So even for many people who never take these drugs, the changing world around them can lead to a relapse.

In other words, Ozempic will become a new medication that worsens eating disorders like stimulants, Topamax or phentermine. The ever changing landscape of capitalism and weight loss will shift the risks for people with eating disorders. Clinicians will need to adjust to the new norm and learn to treat new conditions that arise.

The financial gains from weight loss is too great for companies to ignore. No matter the risks to public health and well being, we live in a world that promotes manufactured foods more likely to cause illness and new medications to balance these effects. The eating disorder treatment world may not be able to shift the tide, but it can be ready for the aftermath.