If You or Your Child Is Being Prescribed Ozempic or Wegovy: What Your Therapist Wants You to Know

June 8, 2026

A perspective piece just published in the New England Journal of Medicine is sounding a clear warning: GLP-1 medications like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Zepbound) may pose serious risks for people with restrictive eating histories, including those who had an eating disorder years ago and consider themselves recovered. The NEJM authors describe case reports of dangerous appetite suppression, a return to restrictive patterns, and psychiatric complications serious enough to require stopping the medication (NEJM, April 2026).

The picture is more complex for binge-type presentations. Research on GLP-1 medications and binge eating disorder shows some reductions in binge frequency, but even here, the long-term psychological safety of these drugs is not yet understood. Rapid, medication-driven weight loss creates its own risks around body image and comparison, and the social context of taking a weight-loss drug can reinforce exactly the kind of thinking that eating disorder treatment works to undo.

What this means practically: these medications are being prescribed at record rates, often by primary care providers who are not asking about eating disorder history. If you or someone you care for is being considered for a GLP-1 medication and there is any history of restriction, overexercise, rigid food rules, or an eating disorder diagnosis, even a mild or past one, that history needs to be part of the prescribing conversation. It is worth asking for a consultation with an eating disorder specialist before starting.

Source: GLP-1 Receptor Agonists and Eating Disorders: Cause for Concern -- New England Journal of Medicine, April 25, 2026.

This post reflects my clinical perspective on current research and is not a substitute for professional consultation.