Folks taking the wildly standard medication Ozempic, to deal with diabetes, and Wegovy, to fight weight problems, are barely much less more likely to have suicidal ideas who should not taking them, researchers reported on Friday.

Hundreds of thousands of individuals take Ozempic and Wegovy, that are thought of to be among the many greatest blockbusters in medical historical past. However final yr a European drug security company mentioned it was investigating whether or not the medication trigger suicidal ideas. The brand new examine, printed within the journal Nature Medication, was funded by the Nationwide Institutes of Well being and used an enormous inhabitants. The findings present information that will doubtlessly reassure individuals who take the medication.

Novo Nordisk, maker of the medication, had no function within the examine, and the examine’s investigators had no conflicts of curiosity.

The investigators used anonymized digital well being data from a database of 100.8 million individuals. That allowed them to have a look at two teams: 240,618 who had been prescribed Wegovy or different weight reduction medication, and 1,589,855 who had been prescribed Ozempic or different medicines to decrease their blood sugar. Suicidal ideas had been included in sufferers’ data as a part of routine monitoring of their well being.

The investigators in contrast the incidence of suicidal ideas in individuals who had been taking the medication with the incidence amongst comparable individuals who weren’t taking them however had been taking different weight reduction and anti-diabetes medicines. In addition they requested if there was a rise within the recurrence of suicidal ideas amongst these taking the medication who had beforehand reported ideas of suicide.

The database’s dimension allowed the researchers to have a look at subgroups similar to intercourse, race and age teams.

“Irrespective of how onerous we tried we didn’t see any elevated threat,” mentioned Rong Xu, director of the Heart for Synthetic Intelligence in Drug Discovery at Case Western Reserve College in Cleveland.

Dr. Xu conceived the examine and interpreted the info with Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse.

However it was an observational examine, so it’s unimaginable to attract conclusions about trigger and impact. Such research can solely present associations. “Extra research are completely wanted,” Dr. Volkow mentioned.

Dr. Xu, Dr. Volkow and their colleagues determined to pursue the analysis final yr. A committee of the European Medicines Company, a gaggle that evaluates and screens the protection of medicine, introduced in July that it was investigating experiences from Iceland that some sufferers taking Ozempic or Wegovy had mentioned that they had been considering of killing themselves or had been intentionally injuring themselves. The company mentioned it had discovered and was analyzing about 150 such circumstances.

Dr. Volkow mentioned suicide threat was doable with the medication as a result of “different anti-obesity therapies that appeared promising and had been investigated previously had been discontinued because of the threat of suicidal behaviors.” One instance was rimonabant, a drug that was withdrawn earlier than it was ever offered in america.

Throughout medical trials of Ozempic and Wegovy by Novo Nordisk, no hyperlinks had been noticed to suicidal ideas. These trials, although, weren’t designed to choose up uncommon hostile occasions that may happen when medication are broadly used.

However the case experiences like those the European company relied on are troublesome to interpret. Have been individuals having ideas due to the medication? Or had been they having these ideas for causes that had nothing to do with the medication? Dr. Volkow mentioned she didn’t suppose the anecdotal experiences alone proved the suicide threat, and the European company acknowledged the restrictions of its case experiences when it began its investigation.

Monika Benstetter, a spokeswoman for the European company, wrote in an e mail that the protection committee “has recognized some points that want additional clarification and has issued new lists of inquiries to be addressed by the businesses.” She added that the company’s security committee would deal with the problem at a gathering in April.

A U.S. Meals and Drug Administration spokeswoman mentioned that whereas the company was persevering with to watch the medication, it nonetheless discovered “that the advantages of those medicines outweigh their dangers when they’re used in response to the FDA permitted labeling.”

Ambre James-Brown, a Novo Nordisk spokeswoman, mentioned, “the findings within the examine assist the protection information collected from massive medical trial applications and post-marketing surveillance.”

Dr. Xu and Dr. Volkow’s analysis group has accomplished one other examine utilizing the identical big database, asking whether or not Ozempic and Wegovy cut back cravings for cigarettes and alcohol. That examine is underneath evaluate at a journal, Dr. Xu mentioned, including that the group discovered that, on this case, anecdotal experiences had been right. These taking the medication do, in truth, report much less curiosity in consuming and smoking.