Ozempic and Wegovy linked to surprising drop in violent behavior | Hacker News Reader

Ozempic and Wegovy linked to surprising drop in violent behavior

sciencedaily.com

29 pointsspeckx49 comments

All of the "surprising" stuff they do is because they reduce neuroinflammation. Imo. As far as I can tell from the literature.

I'm fairly sure that part of the reason they reduce neuroinflammation is because of pulmonary GLP-1 mechanisms. (Lung and brain are quite intimately connected, as is inflammation to the other two. As well as the gut. And… metabolism.)

Neuroinflammation is very behavior-modifying.

(Neuroinflammation kind of makes sense as an untamperable side-channel of information for neuronal processes – out of band; Protective. Can't think yourself to death.)

There's tons of papers to read. You wouldn't believe how much accurate and correct and actionable and predictive scientific information exists that nobody reads.

Read primary sources. Anyone can read. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't read. Least of all yourself.

Why do you suggest the drop in violent behavior is a byproduct of neuroinflammation reduction, as opposed to being a byproduct of anhedonia which seems more obvious to me?

Good question!! thank you!

Because of this paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience...

(and having had twice the experience of autoimmune related illnesses making people close to me very aggressive until diagnosed and treated; and it was 1:1 always with things that made inflammation go up, aggression went up. In retrospect. And the opposite: things that reduced aggression always have an inflammation-reducing aspect)

Because anhedonia feels like a condition/symptom,

not a diagnosis.

Do you have any recommendations for literature you like? (My experience in eye science matches yours - the literature is WAY ahead of what people believe)

Belated!

Been thinking about this since… 6 days ago!, haha

and! This:

"Cis-urocanic acid, a sunlight-induced immunosuppressive factor, activates immune suppression via the 5-HT2A receptor"

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0603119103

(We are all coated in urocanic acid. Right now. We secrete it. ahhaha. what!! And. It isomerizes in UV light and plops into the 5-HT2A receptor and downregulates inflammation.)

It's only a matter of time before nootropics forums start experimenting with these drugs...

These drugs seem to change something fundamental that reduces problematic behavior.

n=1, tirzepatide puts my brain into "neutral," [1] I do not have strong feelings anymore on most anything not "fight or flight." Ego death via GLP-1 if you will. Probably has something to do with how it patches the reward center and its link to impulsive behavior in the prefrontal cortex [2].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSEjPuR11_k

[2] Diekhof EK, Nerenberg L, Falkai P, Dechent P, Baudewig J, Gruber O. Impulsive personality and the ability to resist immediate reward: an fMRI study examining interindividual differences in the neural mechanisms underlying self-control. Hum Brain Mapp. 2012 Dec;33(12):2768-84. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21398 Epub 2011 Sep 21. PMID: 21938756; PMCID: PMC6870517.

It is kind of interesting the implications of "making you feel less hungry" in terms of a general insensitivity to the bodies own signalling mechanisms, vs just a hyper convenient targeted approach that only strikes the hunger portion of the dopamine-reward mechanism.

I wonder if you can do a simple experiment between glp and non glp users where you try and measure various biological response to giving someone say $20?

Going further I wonder if it affects other responses like pain response. How long might you keep your hand on a plate warming up? I seem to remember that sort of experimental setup in my undergrad days of signing up for every psychology department experiment under the sun for beer money.

The sorts of people who are on nootropics forums are definitely already experimenting with GLP-1 agonists and have been for a long time now.

yeah its been on their radar long before it was a popular discussion topic.

it's just not as dramatic or memeable as doing small amounts of LSD

What if you can't reduce problematic behavior without also reducing desirable behavior (like motivation)?

A hungry man is an angry man.

Ehhh. An angry man is an angry man. An angry, hungry man is extra angry.

Reminds me of the movie Equilibrium. And we won't even get Gun Katas.

"But I being poor, have only my dreams. I lay my dreams upon your feet. Tread lightly, for you tread on my dreams."

Any plans to trial these types of drugs in the prison system?

Experimentation on prisoners is unethical

Nothing wrong with making GLP-1s freely available to all who want them if it improves metabolic health, reduces addiction, reduces cancer and inflammation risk, etc. Side effects are known and data to date shows risks are low. Ship it to everyone who wants it imho and kick off the longitudinal study.

The aggregate potential benefit is so high and the risk and cost reasonably low. Certainly, no one should ever be forced to take it, or be experimented on without their explicit, informed consent (and "experimented on" in this context is "taking the GLP-1 already and we're just tracking the outcomes at scale").

There would be informed consent. We aren't the SS.

The SS's policy towards the interred was heavily inspired by the policies the United States was already famous for. We have a historically monstrous record of unethical medical testing against both interred and underprivileged populations.

Well, today in 2026 there would be informed consent.

Would you like to hear about treatment of prisoners in early middle age Europe?

Why is that true today, but wasn't true the many times some group in the US did medical experiments on some vulnerable population without a complete disclosure let alone consent?

Things go through institutional review boards now that are concerned with such past failures.

I admire your trust in other people.

Do you have a better solution?

Yes, don't perform medical experiments on people who can't consent, and loudly object when someone suggests anything that sounds like it.

That is what informed consent is designed to achieve. What you want people already thought about and tried to implement in a realistic way to achieve those goals.

There is no reason to assume that.

The US currently inters tens of thousands of people without access to family or legal counsel.

Are we currently experimenting on these prisoners like the imperial japanese army? The answer is absolutely not.

Non prisoners being prescribed this don’t know what gastroparesis is.

In that context (no informed consent in drug sales),

no, prisoners will not receive informed consent in drug trials.

>no, prisoners will not receive informed consent in drug trials.

Citation needed.

I only mean offer it to them for free so they don't have to sneak in with the assorted peptides and other compounds. Many body builders have already been using Retatrutide for a couple years for muscle definition even though it is not yet approved. I would be quite surprised if they were not already sneaking it into the prison system. Government funded, sourced and dosed should be somewhat safer than going to sketchy websites that require bitcoin and no guarantees of purity.

If I were a prison guard or warden I would be happy to encourage prisoners to use any compound that may improve their impulse control which is likely one of the root causes of their incarceration in the first place.

> I only mean offer it to them for free so they don't have to [...]

That would be a nice idea, but

> Any plans to trial these types of drugs in the prison system?

Is a very different question from "how long until it gets approval for impulse control, and cheap enough that anyone can get access to it?"

Especially considering how foreign the idea of consent is as a concept to software engineers.

Tell that to the many prisoners who participated in and benefited from HIV and hepatitis vaccine trials. What a travesty it would have been if there were a blanket ban on prisoner research.

Research on prisoners is subject to stricter standards, though. From the HHS website:

> Research involving prisoners is permissible only if the research involves one or more of four permissible categories, or if the research meets the criteria described in an HHS Secretarial waiver that applies to certain epidemiological research [...]

> (i) the study of the possible causes, effects, and processes of incarceration, and of criminal behavior, and

> (ii) the study of prisons as institutional structures or of prisoners as incarcerated persons. [...]

> (iii) research on conditions particularly affecting prisoners as a class; [...]

> (iv) research on practices, either innovative or accepted, which have the intent and reasonable probability of improving the health or well-being of the subject. [...]

https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/regulations-and-policy/guidance/faq...

there are things like consent forms and patient incentives. prisoners ain't got much else to do and many would be game if it afforded them more time doing X or extra canteen money.

plus this isn't an experimental drug that will give them mega-cancer or immediately cause their organs to explode -- GLP-1s have been given to much of the population already and their side effects are very well documented.

Could be risky. Healthy prisoners might lead to a rise in 'I can fix him/her' complexes across the general population.

Who knows, maybe when healthy some of them could actually be fixed.

They're FDA approved drugs, so it's a matter of when they're covered by any given prison's health plan. They're unlikely to be given off-label, But there's probably plenty of prisoners on GLPs at least for diabetes if not weight control.

Soma pills are within reach!

It is pity that you are being downvoted by people who are not understanding the reference. Because in the book it is exactly what Soma does, albeit with much faster effect.

Semenza lol

If it works by reducing “wanting” then it may change not only violent behavior but the flip side, attachment and love.

This is a known potential side-effect of these drugs. When I started them my doctor warned me about a possible lack of motivation. These drugs trigger your body's satiation mechanism (as I understand them–not a doctor) and that can apply to more things than just eating.

Are those really a flip side? Stoics wouldn't agree.

Pills that make you a vegetable because you don't want to eat vegetables instead of sweets and count calorie intake.

But does this drop in "aggression" also destroy good "assertiveness"?

In other words there's a concern of creating metaphorical "zombies" who lack a "force of will"

Is there any merit to this concern, or did you just imagine it?

Honestly, I look forward to not having to worry in the back of my mind about having to deal with some unhinged person's "force of will" when I'm just trying to get groceries or pick my kid up from school. A calmer, more cooperative, less "assertive/aggressive" population is a good thing if that's really a possible outcome of these drugs.

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