9 Comments
founding
Dec 2, 2023Liked by Modern Discontent

Gotta love how they hide stuff in their wording: “High discontinuation rates, greater than 50%, were seen across all doses compared to approximately 40% with placebo.” Hmm, could be anywhere from 51% to 100% - some don’t seem as bad compared to 40% in placebo ... considering they don’t say what “high” actually is, I’m gonna consider it much higher than the 10% their numbers seem to suggest. Again using “approximately” 40% for placebo could also indicate a greater gap. 🤦‍♀️

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Dec 2, 2023Liked by Modern Discontent

I'm curious if the placebo is a true saline placebo or a comparator drug.

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author

I think it'd be rather hard to mask the use of a comparator. The only GLP-1 RAs available now are subcutaneous injections, so you can't really conduct a blind RCT without participants noticing a difference in administration.

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founding

Yes, even more potential confounders!

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author

I didn't pay too much mind to their report given that it doesn't seem like they may be evaluating side effects deeply. They still use the basics when it came to side effects such as nausea and vomiting to argue their discontinuation. It does seem like they are alleging that the high dropout rate may be due to the side effects in particular.

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Thank you for maintaining a focus on these drugs! I am always dieting and I stay away from all weight loss drugs - better be hungry but natural

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Wow. Last summer I heard people were talking about experiencing these depressive episodes. So Pfizer is the first to address it. Interesting to see how this develops. Hope people stay safe.

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author

Whoops, sorry my wording may have been confusing. The suicidal ideation was in reference to the GLP-1 RAs already on the market such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro. Pfizer has only suggested that their mid-stage clinical trials noted nausea and vomiting as the main side effects, and this is likely due to the small sample size and shorter use of the medications.

However, I am raising an assumption that these new generation of drugs may elicit these same concerning side effects seen with the current iterations of GLP-1 RAs since they all act as receptor agonists.

Hopefully that clarifies things.

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It does. For a second it seemed like Pfizer was displaying something like ethics. No. Silly me to think that.

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