Reports of Depression and Suicide After Taking Weight Loss Drugs

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April 16, 2024 – “I have zero doubt that this drug caused me to be suicidal and I almost lost my life from it,” Etheridge said, referring to semaglutide, the active ingredient in the blockbuster diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. “I know without a doubt that it made me violently depressed, wanted to remain on it, and thought I might stay on it for life, but it just got progressively worse and it led to a suicide attempt.”

Etheridge filed a report on the Food and Drug Administration’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), which is a self-reporting system. The claims made there are not confirmed by the FDA.

Our investigators reviewed FAERS reports for people taking Ozempic, Wegovy or compounded semaglutide. There were 262 self-reported cases mentioning suicide attempts, ideation, threats, behavior, treatment; or depression.

There were 20 reported suicides in the FAERS data.

Reports of suicidal ideation and depression are still extremely rare compared with other side effects, based on a review of 25,097 self-reported adverse events for semaglutide and brand-name equivalents.

Etheridge said he knows what those fellow patients experienced. “They feel strangely like kindred spirits who went through the same thing that I did [who] just didn’t make it,” he said.