Ozempic Teens and Lawsuits: Health Risks and Legal Actions

“One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small,” said the white rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.

Actually, it’s a shot in the stomach. The pill version isn’t perfected yet but it’s coming. In the meantime, crazy demand for Ozempic & Wegovy, semaglutide with GLP-1 drugs, is skyrocketing in the US and a big part of the reason is the lucrative teen market, mostly females between 18-25.

Ozempic Isn’t Approved for Weight Loss.

The American Academy of Pediatrics/AAP in December 2023 and the US Federal Drug Administration/FDA in December 2022 approved Wegovy for treating weight loss in adolescents as young as age 12. A product of Ozempic’s Danish manufacturer Novo Nordisk, Wegovy is the only brand name in this relatively new class of metabolic drugs approved for weight loss. Period.

Yet 4,000 prescriptions for Wegovy and off-label Ozempic were written for teens in 2023, according to PurpleLab, a data healthcare analytics platform, NBC reported February 21, 2024.

4-Year Studies Called “Long-Term.”

Only 2 studies have investigated the “long-term” effects of semaglutides. Conducted by Nature Medicine and Novo Nordisk, each lasted just 4 years and each published results in May 2024, citing the outsize problem of morbid childhood obesity in America and never-before-results achievable with Ozempic – as long as the injections are continued.

It’s rare, though, for a patient to continue the medication longer than 2 years. Anyway, 4 years isn’t that long-term. A deeper pool of knowledge won’t be gathered for at least another 5-10 years to better indicate the impact Ozempic will have on adolescents in the future. More in a moment.

Negative physical side effects have given rise to Ozempic lawsuits, but not as much commentary has been devoted to potential psychiatric disorders related to eating and weight loss.

We Are Concerned.

Since A Case for Women is made up of women and moms across the country – some of whom have struggled with eating disorders and/or watched a child doing battle with them. We are concerned that Ozempic & Wegovy may encourage not only negative physical side effects, but mental disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa in teens already prone to falling into these traps because of genetic predisposition, environmental stressors, and personality.

“After all,” reported TIME in April 2024, “research tells us about 90% of women are dissatisfied with their bodies. This sounds like a quick fix.”

The article also cites “first anecdotal, then published reports that some doctors are writing semaglutide prescriptions for patients with eating disorders. As in, to help treat them,” wrote Cole Kazdin, Emmy award-winning TV journalist and the author of What’s Eating Us: Women, Food, and the Epidemic of Body Anxiety. “I thought I must have misunderstood.”

Using semaglutide, which shrinks appetite, is similar to dieting. “When teens go on very restrictive diets, whether or not they involve weight-loss medications, we know that may be harmful to their mental health and promote disordered eating,” said Kathleen Miller, an adolescent-medicine specialist at Minnesota Children’s Hospital.

More Bad News RE: Eating Disorders.

Today, 13.5% of teens, mostly girls, suffer from an eating disorder.
According to the American Journal of Psychiatry: “Eating disorders have the HIGHEST risk of death of any mental illness: People with anorexia nervosa and people with bulimia nervosa face a significant risk to their lives.”
If eating disorders don’t end a person’s life, lifelong health issues can destroy quality of life, including heart problems, slowed brain function, decreased hormone levels, hypothermia, and deterioration of teeth & the esophagus.

So How Safe Is Ozempic for Teens?

Compared to what? might be the better question. We are inclined to agree that in the short-term, Ozempic medications would seem to beat staying in your room after school instead of joining activities, being afraid to talk to people at work, developing type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure, plus the near assurance that if you are overweight as a teen, you’ll be overweight as an adult. No one wants these outcomes.

It just isn’t that simple.

A Case for Women Weighs In.

We get it – the enormous burden of helping a nation where 22% of those aged 12-17 are in the highest body mass index (BMI) percentile. Granted, the rapid results of Ozempic and Wegovy are impressive and unprecedented – a breakthrough.

Overall, though, we land closer to the view that a great deal is still unknown about Ozempic and what we do know is not well understood.

Please. Be. Careful.

Ozempic drugs are a relatively unknown variable with huge apparent short-term positives but long-term unknowns so consequential that the decision to use them for treating overweight teens should be equally consequential.

In the meantime, if you or your child has been affected by taking semaglutide drugs under the brand names Ozempic and/or Wegovy, you could get help right away by contacting us 24/7/365. We’ll know what to do and we’ll connect you to the right Ozempic lawyers.

On that note, we only work with Ozempic attorneys who take cases on contingency. We have a close relationship with all lawyers we work with so that we know we can ensure that women who contact us will be taken care of by their law firm. When you reach out to us, you’re accessing real people who are legal whisperers. We’re here if you need us.

Weighing Ozempic for Teens.