Suit over SSRI labels

SSRIs and SNRIs are missing an important warning, says a Howard University scientist, and if the FDA is ignoring his petition to have that change, he’s taking it to court (with the help of non-profit group Public Citizen).

That petition was actually filed by 22 scientists in 2018, and the FDA’s regs require it to respond petitions like this within 180 days. Hence the lawsuit to act as a kick in the pants to the agency.

The issue is sexual side effects, specifically sexual ones, that can last long after the drugs are discontinued. There are warnings about this in Canada and Europe, so it’s not as if they’re pulling it out of thin air.

So far, nothing from the FDA.

Covid can damage your eyes

That twinkle in your eye might be Covid-19 — the SARS-CoV-2 virus turns out to able to slip past the blood-retina barrier.

By damaging that barrier, the virus is able to start damaging the retina itself, according to TK scientists, specificially “retinal microaneurysm, retinal artery and vein occlusion, and vascular leakage,” none of which sounds good.

The damage can happen in who are otherwise healthy, too. “Even those who were asymptomatic could suffer from damage in the eyes over time because of Covid-19 associated complications.”

Semaglutide’s next trick

This week it’s [throws dart] preventing kidney damage.

A trial with about 17,600 people was designed to see Wegovy’s effect on heart disease in overweight patients, but when they parsed the results the folks at Novo Nordisk found that, as the lead author put it, “semaglutide…may contribute to a significant reduction in the risk of kidney-related complications, including chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.”

In the new analysis, semaglutide led to a slower decline in a certain measure of kidney function known as eGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate), particularly in individuals with a pre-existing kidney impairment.

There was also a significant reduction in the urinary albumin-to-creatine ratio (UACR), another important marker of kidney health.

Speaking of semaglutide….

Taking birth control while using it is probably a good idea. There are a lot of anecdotes about women getting pregnant while using GLP-1 drugs, to the point where medical folks are recommending that birth control and semaglutide be ‘paired.’

There’s a logic to the pregnancy angle. As on Aussie doc put it, “Women with obesity often have irregular or no periods because they don’t ovulate. Once they lose some weight, ovulation becomes more regular and this is how their fertility improves.”

There’s another important reason to use birth control. While drug makers didn’t test the meds on pregnant people, there’s some evidence from animal studies that having a baby while using them can lead to fetal abnormalities.

According to Novo Nordisk, when semaglutide was given to pregnant rats, the unborn offspring showed both structural abnormalities and alterations to growth.

Tattoo danger

Tattoos might increase your risk of lymphoma. A Swedish study of about 12,000 7,200 people found that there was a significantly higher rate of lymphoma in those who had tattoos:

“After taking into account other relevant factors, such as smoking and age, we found that the risk of developing lymphoma was 21 percent higher among those who were tattooed.”

What’s extra interesting is that tattoo size didn’t make a difference — a full-body tat or just a teddy bear on your butt both increased the risk. That’s one reason they’re careful to say that this is just a preliminary result (‘more studies are needed’). It’s one that makes sense, though: “A large part of the ink is transported away from the skin, to the lymph nodes where it is deposited,” said the lead author.