Can weight management medication trigger blindness? Scientists name for a double verify

Individuals taking the burden loss and diabetes medication Wegovy and Ozempic could also be at elevated danger of turning into blind in a single eye as a result of a uncommon situation. This was reported in a research revealed within the journal JAMA Ophthalmology. As a part of it, the medical data of 17 thousand individuals have been examined.

They discovered that diabetic sufferers prescribed semaglutide, bought beneath the names Wegovy and Ozempic, have been about 4 occasions extra more likely to be identified with non-arterial anterior ischemic optic neuropathy, a illness that causes ache solely at there isn’t any remedy. As well as, obese sufferers who obtained the drug have been 7 occasions extra more likely to develop NAION than those that didn’t take it.

Weigh the dangers

NAION happens because of diminished blood movement to the optic nerve, which connects the attention to the mind, resulting in sudden and irreversible blindness in a single eye. It is a very uncommon illness that impacts 2 to 10 individuals out of 100 thousand. Nevertheless, the researchers say, their observations ought to give pause to docs and sufferers.

“Using these medication in industrialized nations has reached its peak, and in lots of circumstances they’re very helpful, however sooner or later, when prescribing them, the physician and the affected person ought to contemplate on NAION as a possible menace,” he stated. in his assertion Dr. Joseph Rizzo, one of many research authors and director of the neuro-ophthalmology service at Massachusetts Basic Hospital. In the summertime of 2023, Rizzo and colleagues identified NAION in three sufferers taking weight reduction medication in a single week. Contemplating this suspicion – given the rarity of the illness – the physician determined to review the information of the sufferers.

Please notice that it has not been accomplished

The research has a number of necessary limitations. Due to this fact, scientists nonetheless do not know whether or not the drug itself induced the blindness or whether or not their pattern by chance included an unusually excessive proportion of sufferers with uncommon eye ailments, which gave have an effect on the general end result. Nevertheless, the research confirmed that the best danger of growing NAION in sufferers was seen within the first 12 months after semaglutide prescription; this implies that blindness could also be attributable to the drug.

The researchers stated their findings have been “necessary however preliminary,” calling for a extra cautious research of the connection between semaglutide and imaginative and prescient loss. “This research is beneficial for figuring out a doable hyperlink between remedy and the prevalence of NAION, however this isn’t the kind of research that may definitively show that remedy induced NAION,” stated Andrew Lee, scientific speaker for the American Academy of Ophthalmology and neuro-ophthalmologist at Houston Methodist Hospital within the US.

The brand new findings are significantly necessary for people who find themselves contemplating taking the drug – particularly if they’ve optic nerve issues comparable to glaucoma, stated Dr Rizzo.

Different research have proven that anti-obesity medication could cut back the danger of growing most cancers, coronary heart assault and strokehowever on the similar time associated to uncommon, however extreme abdomen issues.

Semaglutide, a part of a category of medication known as glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, gained reputation after the Danish firm Novo Nordisk launched the diabetes drug Ozempic in 2017 and the management drug Wegovy in 2021.

Demand has grown a lot that there’s a scarcity of Ozempic within the European Union. On this background European Medicines Company they urged docs to not prescribe the drug for “beauty causes” alone and warned towards the hazard of fakes.