Q: I started taking Ozempic Wegovy a few months ago for weight loss, and have lost a few pounds, but I am hearing about some kind of vision risk. Tell me more.
A: Many Americans are now taking one of these semaglutide medications in an effort to lose weight. These medications, like all medications, carry a variety of side effects and risks. But when asked about possible risk of losing one of our senses…….losing our eyesight always rates at the top.
Recent studies are finding that a relatively rare eye disorder called NAION is more common in patients taking drugs like Wegovy. The acronym NAION stands for Non Arteritic Ischemic Optic Neuropathy. This is a painless, sudden and permanent loss of vision, usually in one eye. The blood flow and oxygen to the eye suddenly is stopped. The review study found that patients on semaglutide medications, like Wegovy and others, had a seven times higher risk of NAION than patients prescribed other drugs for weight loss. While this disorder is fairly rare, anything that may increase your chance of permanent sight loss causes a lot of valid concern.
These drugs are also prescribed for diabetic patients, and in that group the risk of NAION was four times higher than diabetics prescribed other type of drugs.
The actual cause or mechanism for this is not well understood yet. Further study will be needed to determine this, and perhaps lead to better prescribing guidance. Nonetheless, because these medications are being prescribed often as a “patient choice” option, and not required in a life saving situation, the caution is worth understanding. In other words, in many cases the patient is asking his or her physician for a semaglutide drug for weight loss, assuming that these carry no serious risk. Knowing the whole story, even including early studies like this one published in JAMA Ophthalmology, may affect your decision to ask for this and/or to continue. No medication is without risk, but this one seems to really hit home for many people. So while the marketing ads we are flooded with on television are very persuasive, realize that real and life changing side effects may also be part of the whole story.
