Beyond their surprising weight loss success, some users have hailed medications like Ozempic and Wegovy for making their lives happier and improving their mental health.
But new research from the University of Chicago, which followed thousands of users for more than two years, has found little evidence behind these claims.
Patients' perceived improvements in their marriages or careers largely disappeared over time, the observational paper, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found.
Still, that doesn't mean medications don't have a positive impact beyond physical health. Researchers believe it may simply be more subtle than can be measured.
“We measure outcomes such as whether someone was employed or unemployed, married or divorced, and standard indicators of mental health,” Harris School of Public Policy economist Robert Kaestner said in a statement. “Those are important measures, but they don't necessarily capture changes in self-esteem, quality of relationships, or other day-to-day experiences.”
The researchers also analyzed data from the national Medical Expenditure Panel Survey collected over more than a decade, including nearly 8,000 observations of adult patients with diabetes on depression symptoms, marital status and employment.
The 2012 to 2023 survey includes more than 354,000 people, but the team said more work is needed to understand the broader social effects of drugs.
“This is still a very new area of research,” Kaestner said.
The University of Chicago findings clash with another recent observational paper that found that GLP-1 use is linked to better job and dating prospects for women who were already employed.
More Americans than ever are taking these medications, a national poll by the Gallup think tank found this week. About 15 percent of the 5,065 adults surveyed said they had taken the medications at some point and 11 percent said they were currently taking them.
That's an increase from 3 percent of those who said they were taking an obesity drug in 2024.
Many users have reported feeling more confident in their skin after taking the medications, which work by mimicking a hormone that suppresses appetite.
“This medication has changed my life in a positive way in every aspect of my social life, my personal life and how I present myself. It has allowed me to be more confident in the spaces I walk in,” Los Angeles content creator Alexus Murphy, who is at Zepbound, previously told CNN.
While the long-term effects of the drugs are still being studied, injections and pills have been shown to benefit the heart and liver, and may also reduce the risk of dementia and cancer.
However, the medications also have a high failure rate due to side effects including extreme nausea or vomiting and even blindness.
