The new class of drugs against obesity, the ARGLP-1, is demonstrating to be remarkably effective in helping people lose weight. However, a new population study, which is presented in the Annual Meeting of the European Association for Diabetes Study That begins today in Vienna, reveals that half of adults without diabetes that begin to take semaglutida, to lose weight, in Denmark interrupt him within one year.
«This level of decrease is worrying, since These medications are not designed to be a temporary solution», Explains the main author, Reimar W. Thomsen, of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology of the University of Aarhus, of Denmark. «To be effective, they must be taken in the long term. All beneficial effects on appetite control are lost if the medicine is suspended ».
To provide more evidence, researchers used health records data at the national level between the drug launch date in Denmark (December 1, 2022) and October 1, 2023. 77,310 Semagglutide users to lose weight First identified, more than half (40,262; average age of 50 years, 72% women) stopped taking it after a year. 18%, 31% and 42% interrupted treatment at 3, 6 and 9 months, respectively.
About Why so many people leave treatmentThe analysis revealed that the most common factor was age: younger users, from 18 to 29 years old, were 48% more likely to interrupt treatment during the first year than those aged 45 to 59, after controlling sex differences. Similarly, those who lived in low -income areas had 14% of abandoning it during the first year than those who lived in high -income areas.
Both factors highlight the probable Impact of the high costs of these medications (2,000 euros a year for the lowest dose of semaglutida as of June 2025), which constitutes an important barrier for the treatment of many people.
Besides, who had previously used gastrointestinal medicines (which may indicate that they are more vulnerable to the common gastrointestinal side effects reported by LPG1-RA users, such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea) had 9% more possibilities to suspend the semaglutida during the first year.
In the same way, the people with a history of psychiatric medication They had 12 % more likely to interrupt it the first year, while those who suffered from cardiovascular diseases or other chronic conditions had about 10 %, which also suggests a greater probability of experiencing adverse effects.