Treating eating disorders in the age of GLP-1s<\/p>\n
Historically, GLP-1 agonists have been used to treat Type 2 diabetes and lower blood sugar levels, chronic obesity, certain cardiovascular issues and metabolic complications.\n<\/p>\n
More recently, some drug brands and formulas have been approved specifically for weight loss, and have exploded in use among celebrities, public figures and the public.\n<\/p>\n
Ponce has witnessed first-hand how these medications can make a difference. Her husband takes a GLP-1 for diabetes and health issues related to chronic weight management issues, \u201cand it has transformed his life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHis transformation has been incredible, and it\u2019s all in the name of health. And he is someone who had a medical need to go on it,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
Her husband\u2019s care is regularly monitored and managed by a health care provider. He has also sought additional social and behavioral health support while taking the medication.\n<\/p>\n
But Ponce fears this is not the case for many other people who may be taking these drugs as a quick or temporary solution to \u201cfix\u201d weight or body image issues.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an area that I think that he is not like everybody else. He is someone who, because of his relationship to me and my history, he\u2019s hyper aware of the changes that can happen when our body shifts so much,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
For people with eating disorders, DeCaro said these weight-loss drugs could exacerbate their clinical diagnosis, which often includes co-occurring mental health disorders, trauma, substance use issues, social isolation, emotional dysregulation and more.\n<\/p>\n
She\u2019s already seeing patients at Renfrew after they\u2019ve tried GLP-1 medications when they may have been better supported by therapists, dieticians and medical providers versed in eating disorders and disordered eating.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re either unhappy with the amount of weight they\u2019ve lost, they are still struggling with food, whether it\u2019s restricting or binge eating,\u201d DeCaro said. \u201cThere are people who I think maybe had hopes that the product would help their eating disorder or cure their eating disorder, but they end up coming into treatment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a lot of fear among these patients about coming off the medications, \u201cwhich complicates things,\u201d DeCaro said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of fear about gaining weight back. There\u2019s fear of what will happen to their hunger if they come off these medications,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s this additional layer of anxiety and fear that we\u2019re working with.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Some people may pursue weight-loss drugs instead of seeking treatment for an eating disorder, providers said. Shira Collings, a telehealth licensed professional counselor based in Philadelphia, has recently noticed a drop in the number of patients seeking therapy for eating disorders.\n<\/p>\n
Collings likes to take a \u201chealth-at-every-size,\u201d or \u201cfat-affirming\u201d approach to therapy.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more common that if someone is struggling with their relationship with food and especially if they\u2019re at a higher weight, now it\u2019s just more likely that they would start with a GLP-1 or just say, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s gonna fix it,\u2019\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n
But for people with a clinical eating disorder diagnosis, this just delays evidence-based care and the opportunity to achieve meaningful long-term recovery from the disorder, Collings said.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt prevents people from fully addressing the psychological drivers of eating disorders where the goal is definitely body acceptance, letting your body kind of naturally do what it needs to do, making sure someone is at a weight that their body kind of naturally gravitates to, when they\u2019re eating enough and moving in ways that are fun and enjoyable,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd obviously, GLP-1s really go counter to that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Treating eating disorders in the age of GLP-1s Historically, GLP-1 agonists have been used to treat Type 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[124144,81767,69,71,70,49915],"class_list":["post-301524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-eating-disorders","tag-glp-1","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-weight-loss"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}