GLP-1 Medicines and Mental Health Changes

January 20, 2026 updated by: Thomas Rutledge, University of California, San Diego

Changes in Psychiatric Symptoms, Eating Disorder Behaviors, and Health Behaviors Following Six Months of GLP-1 Treatment for Obesity

Key question: Is the use of GLP-1 weight loss medicines - semaglutide and tirzepatide - associated with improvements in mental health and health-related quality of life?

Key finding: Across six- months of GLP-1 treatment, participants reported statistically significant improvements in mental health, eating disorder symptoms, and health-related quality of life domains such as pain interference and sleep quality.

Message for readers: Although GLP-1 medicines are prescribed primarily for weight loss and metabolic health benefits, growing evidence suggests that these medicines may also facilitate meaningful improvements in mental health and quality of life.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

In a sample of veterans with obesity and established metabolic disease receiving supervised GLP-1 treatment for weight loss, we observed a consistent pattern of improved psychiatric health, eating disorder behaviors, and health-related quality of life. In addition to observing statistically significant changes across all the latter dimensions using validated psychometric measures, effect size magnitudes were also large enough to suggest potentially clinically meaningful improvements. Importantly, we observed robust evidence of decreases in depressive symptoms - averaging 30% declines in symptom severity - with no signs of increased suicidal ideation symptoms in the sample. The smaller size of this sample necessarily warrants additional research to validate these findings across the broader veteran population and among non-veteran samples.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

90

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • California
      • San Diego, California, United States, 92161
        • VA San Diego Healthcare System

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child
  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Veterans receiving care at the VA San Diego Healthcare System

Exclusion Criteria:

  • VASDHS Veterans not receiving GLP-1 medicines for obesity through the weight control clinic

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: GLP-1 medicine
GLP-1 treatment
Drug: GLP-1
Wegovy or Zepbound

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Beck Depression Inventory-2
Time Frame: Six months
Changes in BDI-2 scores
Six months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of California, San Diego

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

May 1, 2024

Primary Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

July 1, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 20, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 20, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

January 27, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 20, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • E250185

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

Data belong to VA San Diego and are not mine to share.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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