Vision loss with semaglutide?

Semaglutide use has been linked with a higher risk of an eye condition that can cause blindness — nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy or NAION.

• For people taking semaglutide for diabetes, 8.9% had NAION, compared to only 1.8% of those taking other drugs.
• For people taking semaglutide for obesity, 6.7% had NAION, compared to only 0.8% of those taking other drugs.

In other words, the Mass Eye and Ear researchers who did the study found that …

After taking patients’ other risk factors for the condition into account, such as high blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnea, use of semaglutide was associated with a more than four times higher risk of NAION in those receiving it for diabetes and a more than seven times higher risk in patients taking it for obesity.

Antidepressants and weight gain

Some antidepressants can lead to more weight gain than others, and some can even help lose weight. But researchers at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute wanted to get the details, so they turned to the health records of more than 180,000 adults who were new users of antidepressants.

They compared the subjects’ weight after six months, one year, and two years and cross-referenced with the drugs they were using: bupropion, citalopram, duloxetine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, paroxetine, sertraline, or venlafaxine.

They found that patients taking escitalopram (Lexapro), paroxetine (Paxil), or duloxetine (Cymbalta), “had a higher risk, 10 to 15 percent, of gaining a clinically significant amount of weight” compared to people on sertraline (Zoloft). And those on bupropion (Wellbutrin) were less likely to put on the extra pounds.

(The link above goes to the press release; here’s a news article on the story.)

Short Takes

Good news … for 40%

A British study found that about 40% of patients who’ve used antidepressants more than a year can stop taking them without major side effects — just being in touch with GPs or even online therapists was enough for them to get off and stay off the drugs.

New Alzheimer’s drug approved

The FDA has approved Lilly’s Kisunla, aka donanemab, to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s. It’s another drug that targets amyloid plaques, and another drug that has a limited but notable effect — it can delay the onset of cognitive decline by about seven months.

Lilly has set the price at $32,000 for a year, but unlike the other anti-plaque drug that’s been approved, Eisai’s Leqembi, patients can stop taking Kisunla once plaque levels decline. Like Leqembi, though, there’s a risk of brain swelling and bleeding.

Fun fact about ticks

A Lyme vaccine is in late-stage trials (yay!), but Northeastern researchers think they can do one better. They’re working on a vaccine against ticks, period — not just Lyme, but other tick-borne diseases like Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

The idea is simple, actually. People can naturally develop resistance to ticks if they get bitten enough. In a win for simplicity, it’s called acquired tick resistance. “[H]ost animals that ticks have fed on ‘develop an immune reaction to the saliva and possibly to other tick parts’,” the lead researcher explained.

Kind of like the little brother who keeps poking you. At some point he’s gonna get smacked upside the head.

The Northeasterners now want to see if they can use this fact to create a vaccine that would have the same effect — perhaps using tick saliva — without requiring anyone to get bitten over and over. “If the tick cannot feed and falls off prematurely, then the pathogens don’t make it into the vaccinated host either.”

Statins work for older folks

How well do statins work in people 75 or older? Pretty darned well according to a joint US-Hong Kong research team that looked at the medical records of more than 80,000 older individuals over 11 years.

The robust evidence demonstrated that continuous statin therapy resulted in a substantial relative risk reduction in cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) of 21% for those aged 75–84 and 35% for those aged 85 or above, without any heightened safety concerns.