Robert Whitfield MD warns about 18-year-olds obtaining GLP-1 agonist weight-loss drugs (examples cited: semaglutide, tirzepatide). He notes the drugs are effective but were not studied in teenagers, and highlights a parent's lack of legal/medical control over an adult child's treatment decisions.
One of my clients told me that their 18 year old got themselves on a GLP1 Agonist and for everybody listening that's thinking like sepiglutide or tirzepatide or one of the other GLP1s and at 18 you're doing that and she, the mom was like at a loss because she can't do anything she doesn't control or have any ability to control like what's happening in a doctor patient relationship with her 18 year old daughter. And I was like oh my gosh. Yet another thing that we shouldn't be doing that's like a healthcare community is putting a teenager on a, a drug that definitely works. There's no doubt about that drug working. It modifies behavior, it does all sorts of things but that was not studied in teenagers. I have not heard that happening but I don't doubt it. Yeah and the mom obviously was shook a little bit telling me that I was like oh my gosh.
