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Comment by ohgodplsno | Hacker News Reader

Nothing more american than self-medication using drugs that should be for diabetics, leading to both diabetics ending up in life threatening conditions because of a lack of said medicine, as well as a high likelihood of suicidal thoughts and self harm coming from the use of said medicine (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-statement-ongoing-revi...)

Watch as how, miraculously, every famous actor, singer, public personality that was overweight suddenly got thin because they decided to just "start exercising" a year ago, exactly as the time where Semaglutide's effects were starting to be known.

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> The review was triggered by the Icelandic medicines agency following reports of suicidal thoughts and self-injury in people using liraglutide and semaglutide medicines. So far authorities have retrieved and are analysing about 150 reports of possible cases of self-injury and suicidal thoughts.

> Liraglutide and semaglutide medicines are widely used, with an exposure of over 20 million patient-years to date. It is not yet clear whether the reported cases are linked to the medicines themselves or to the patients’ underlying conditions or other factors.

I think 150 case reports (3 reports from Iceland) across 20 million patient-years, with no evidence of a causality, seems to be very far from a "high likelihood" at the moment.

Your link makes no claim about a “high likelihood.” In fact, it more or less says the opposite:

(This is besides the fact that all medicine is iatrogenic in nature: medicine is prescribed not because it’s perfect, but because the side effects it produces are considered preferable against the symptoms it treats.)

> self-medication using drugs that should be for diabetics

Except it’s literally approved to treat obesity by the FDA

Hardly my fault if the FDA is one of the most notoriously incompetent safety administrations I've seen in my life. Additionally, approved or not, self-medication is an absurdly stupid thing to do, and most users of it did not go through a doctor for it.

It’s obviously not your fault that the FDA approved a drug.

But it is your fault for saying wrong information.

It’s also not self-medicating as, in the US at least, it must be prescribed by a doctor.

Can you share your background with regards to pharmacology, drug regulations, biochemistry and drug safety that back up your claim?

> high likelihood of suicidal thoughts and self harm coming from the use of said medicine

correlation != causation

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