The mental effect of GLP-1 drugs

Washington Post - Korrie Stevenson had been feeling off for months. She would look at a gorgeous birthday cake or walk outside to a pink-and-purple streaked sunset, but not really enjoy them. The 51-year-old mother of two had similar feelings about sports, something she had loved since she was a child....

“Like you’re trying to be excited about a moment but can’t fully connect to it,” she said.

Then one day, she was driving near her home in Winter Park, Florida, when the thought came to her: Was it a side effect of her GLP-1 medication?

Doctors say they’ve begun hearing similar accounts: a kind of emotional flattening, a dulled response not just to food but to other sources of joy such as reading, listening to music, dancing, gardening — or even sex. Some users also blamed the medications for falling out of love. Online, the phenomenon has taken on a name — anhedonia — and, more colloquially, “Ozempic personality.”

.... The new class of GLP-1 drugs — built around compounds that mimic hormones involved in appetite and blood-sugar regulation — are generally considered safe. Their metabolic effects have been scrutinized in studies, but their psychological impact is far less understood.