Kathy Schwartz was 10 years free from alcohol, cigarettes and opiates however every single day it was painful to manage her cravings. “They had been all the time within the background,” she says. In June final yr, nonetheless, this noise fell silent.

Prescribed the weight-loss drug semaglutide, she not solely misplaced almost 30 kilograms over 10 months, but additionally her want to achieve for a drink or take some tablets. “I don’t crave, which I didn’t assume can be a aspect impact,” says Schwartz. Remarkably, the despair and anxiousness that might beforehand come over her in waves additionally calmed down.

Schwartz isn’t alone on this expertise. New analysis is revealing the shocking mind and psychological well being advantages of semaglutide medicine equivalent to Ozempic and Wegovy, and different associated diabetes and weight-loss medicine that mimic a intestine hormone launched after consuming.

It’s early days, however there are hints that these medicine could possibly be repurposed to deal with despair, anxiousness, dependancy and even sure consuming problems – in addition to neurological circumstances equivalent to Parkinson’s illness and Alzheimer’s. What’s extra, it appears that evidently these results aren’t simply mediated through weight reduction, however via direct motion on the mind.

The story of medication like Ozempic begins again within the Nineteen Seventies and Eighties when researchers discovered that a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) may stimulate insulin manufacturing when injected into rodents within the lab. Extra surprisingly, these animals began consuming much less and shedding pounds. We now know that the hormone results in an elevated feeling of fullness.

Semaglutide and extra

Immediately, medicine that mimic…