United States: A set of three studies published at Digestive Disease Week 2024 have looked into real-life patients’ data to assess the frequency of certain gastrointestinal adverse effects, such as gastroparesis, in patients taking common anti-obesity and diabetes medications.
Such medications include glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists GLP-1; the semaglutide-class of drugs (Ozempic / Wegovy), and the / twincretin-containing drugs such as tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound with both GLP–1 and GIP receptors.
Associated side-effects of such drugs
These drugs are commonly associated with gastrointestinal side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. However, there can also be events that are less frequently observed and linked to them. These are added gastroparesis, ileus, and acute pancreatitis, healthline.com reported.
Most of the diseases categorized as rare diseases have started to gain research attention due to data sharing by patients and prescribers in the real world. For instance, the FDA added a warning only related to iIeus for Ozempic and Wegovy in October 2023 only.
Given that millions of Americans are consuming GLP-1 and twincretin drugs (a recent study claims that this figure reaches 13 percent of adults or approximately 1 in 8 people), the information regarding the side effects of these drugs pours in really fast.
Scientists have it that gastroparesis incidence is higher in GLP-1s users than in non-users of the medication. However, experts reached by Healthline aren’t unanimous on the extent to which that discovery has been made.
Gastroparesis by GLP-1 drugs
The three researchers each continued independently investigating the relationship between GLP-1s and GI side effects with particular attention to gastroparesis in three studies this week.
The first one, coordinated by researchers from the University of Kansas, used data from the TriNetX database that includes medical records in electronic form from all over the world.
It incorporates data belonging to millions of patients of large healthcare-delivering entities. Surgeons utilised a section of data of patients, who were initially diagnosed with diabetes or obesity and were prescribed a GLP-1 between 2021-2022.
This group of patients was then matched with another similar group of patients also diagnosed with diabetes or obesity but who were not given a GLP-1.
A total of 300,000 patients were included in the research. Out of them, 66 percent of those taking GLP-1 drugs were more likely to be diagnosed with gastroparesis compared to those who were not.
Prateek Sharma, MD, a Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medical Oncology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and lead investigator of the study, told Healthline, “Patients need to be informed about these side effects before treatment is started. There is a lot of excitement and demand for these medications, but side effects are critical points for discussion,” as healthline.com reported.