---
type: source
title: "GLP-1 Agonists Are Psychiatric Drugs: Psychiatry Should Start Acting Like It"
author: "Osmind (Dr. Sauvé)"
url: https://www.osmind.org/blog/glp-1-psychiatry
date: 2026-01-01
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-05-06
priority: high
tags: [GLP-1, psychiatry, dopamine, tonic-phasic, dosing-strategy, competency-gap, anhedonia, tirzepatide, semaglutide]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
claims_extracted:
- glp1-prescribing-competency-gap-primary-care-psychiatric-monitoring
---

## Content

Osmind clinical practice article (estimated Q1 2026) arguing that GLP-1 receptor agonists should be classified as psychiatric medications — directly targeting brain circuits governing reward, motivation, and compulsive behavior.

**Core argument:**
GLP-1 receptors are densely distributed in psychiatric-relevant brain circuits: VTA, nucleus accumbens, insula, and prefrontal cortex. The drugs function as "a brake on the reward system" by suppressing dopamine signaling through GABA neurons in the VTA. This is not an incidental CNS effect — it is a core pharmacological mechanism.

**Tonic vs. phasic framing (key conceptual contribution):**
- Natural GLP-1 is PHASIC: spikes after meals, degrades within 1-2 minutes (endogenous half-life)
- Long-acting GLP-1 agonists (semaglutide, liraglutide) create TONIC receptor occupancy: continuous, days-long receptor activation
- This creates sustained dopaminergic modulation across ALL reward circuits — including food, sex, social interaction, music, achievement
- Anhedonia at standard weight-loss doses = mismatch between phasic physiology and tonic pharmacology
- At lower doses, the tonic suppression is less severe → less anhedonia

**Clinical evidence cited:**
- AUD: semaglutide reduces alcohol use disorder symptoms with "effect sizes exceeding those historically seen with naltrexone or acamprosate" (2025 JAMA Psychiatry trial)
- SUD: Observational data from 142,000 participants showed 75% lower odds of developing any substance use disorder with GLP-1 exposure; semaglutide showed 85% and 87% reductions in alcohol and opioid use disorder odds
- Low-dose tirzepatide (0.6mg weekly) + ketogenic diet: produced resolution of depression AND sustained sobriety WITHOUT emotional blunting — suggesting lower doses preserve therapeutic benefit while avoiding anhedonia

**Competency gap identified:**
- Psychiatrists are managing patients prescribed GLP-1s by primary care/endocrinology without understanding CNS mechanisms, dosing nuances, or psychiatric adverse effects
- Dosing strategy matters clinically: primary care prescribers optimizing for weight loss use therapeutic doses (high tonic suppression); psychiatric dosing may favor lower doses that preserve hedonic function
- The competency gap creates a structural risk: wrong prescriber, wrong dose, wrong monitoring → anhedonia in patients without psychiatric support

**Key recommendation:**
- "Recognize anhedonia may reflect dosing strategy (tonic vs. phasic signaling), not inherent drug properties"
- Psychiatrists should consider prescribing GLP-1s directly for SUD and mood disorders, not outsourcing to primary care
- Implement monitoring for lean mass loss; consider resistance training + adequate protein as standard co-prescription

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** The tonic/phasic distinction is the clearest mechanistic explanation for GLP-1-induced anhedonia published to date. If anhedonia is a function of tonic receptor occupancy at therapeutic weight-loss doses, then lower doses for psychiatric indications may achieve the addiction/mood benefits WITHOUT the emotional blunting. This is a clinically actionable framework that should shape claim-writing on GLP-1 psychiatric effects.

**What surprised me:** The 75% lower odds of ANY substance use disorder with GLP-1 exposure (142,000 participants) is a very large effect size in a non-clinical population. This is broader than the AUD effect from Session 34. GLP-1s may be the most effective anti-addiction medication ever studied.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Specific dosing protocols for psychiatric vs. metabolic GLP-1 use. The article identifies the problem (tonic vs. phasic, wrong dose) but doesn't give a formal dosing table. This remains a clinical gap.

**KB connections:**
- [[healthcare AI creates a Jevons paradox because adding capacity to sick care induces more demand for sick care]] — analogous: optimizing GLP-1 dosing for weight loss may create psychiatric harm demand
- the mental health supply gap is widening not closing — GLP-1s addressing SUD and mood could offset some of this
- human-in-the-loop clinical AI degrades to worse-than-AI-alone — analogous structural problem: wrong professional type (primary care vs. psychiatry) optimizing the wrong metric creates unintended psychiatric harm

**Extraction hints:**
- Primary claim: "GLP-1-induced anhedonia is a tonic receptor occupancy phenomenon, not an inherent pharmacological property, resolving with dose reduction because natural GLP-1 is phasic"
- Secondary claim: "Primary care prescribers of GLP-1s at therapeutic weight-loss doses lack psychiatric competency to monitor for CNS effects, creating structural risk of anhedonia in patients without psychiatric support"
- Note: connects to Belief 3 (structural misalignment) — the prescribing system optimizes for the measurable metric (weight loss, HbA1c) while externalizing the psychiatric cost

**Context:** Osmind is a psychiatric practice management and research platform serving psychiatrists; this is industry-facing clinical guidance, not peer-reviewed research. The framing reflects psychiatric community's emerging recognition of GLP-1s as cross-domain drugs.

## Curator Notes (structured handoff for extractor)
PRIMARY CONNECTION: [[GLP-1 receptor agonists are the largest therapeutic category launch in pharmaceutical history but their chronic use model makes the net cost impact inflationary through 2035]]
WHY ARCHIVED: The tonic/phasic mechanistic framework is the most clinically actionable explanation for GLP-1-induced anhedonia; the competency gap finding connects GLP-1 prescribing to Belief 3's structural misalignment thesis
EXTRACTION HINT: Two claims: (1) tonic/phasic mechanism of anhedonia (dose-dependent, reversible), (2) prescribing competency gap as Belief 3 instance in the GLP-1 context
