---
type: source
title: "What's the True Risk for Eating Disorders With GLP-1s?"
author: "STAT News"
url: https://www.statnews.com/2026/04/27/health-news-true-risk-of-eating-disorders-and-wegovy-ozempic/
date: 2026-04-27
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: article
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-05-05
priority: high
tags: [glp-1, eating-disorders, semaglutide, incidence, regulatory-gap, screening, evidence-gap, pharmacovigilance]
intake_tier: research-task
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

STAT News investigative feature (April 27, 2026) on the evidence base for eating disorder risk with GLP-1 medications.

**Key finding — ISPOR real-world analysis:**
- More than 60,000 people taking GLP-1s analyzed via medical records
- 1.28% diagnosed with eating disorder within two years
- Note: This is total incidence in GLP-1 users — no control group for comparison (limitation)

**Scale calculation:** If ~1 in 8 Americans takes a GLP-1, more than 420,000 people could develop an eating disorder based on this rate.

**Expert assessment:** "Physicians, trialists, regulators, policymakers, and drug developers are unprepared for this coming wave" — attributed to "Banks" (identity unclear in search results).

**Research gap acknowledged:** "Actual research on this topic is scant" — the article explicitly characterizes the evidence base as insufficient.

**Full article content inaccessible** (subscription/paywall — STAT News). Full summary above derived from search result excerpts and corroborating sources.

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** STAT News has the most credibility among health science journalists for quantitative accuracy. The April 27, 2026 date (one week ago) makes this the most current synthesis available. The 1.28% figure is the best available real-world incidence estimate, even without controls.

**What surprised me:** The STAT News framing "true risk" in the headline suggests the article is specifically addressing the causality vs. population-selection debate — this is exactly the question from this session. Unfortunately the full article is paywalled.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Full article content — it's behind the STAT News paywall. The extract doesn't give the full causality assessment.

**KB connections:** [[healthcare AI creates a Jevons paradox because adding capacity to sick care induces more demand for sick care]] — analogous structure: increasing GLP-1 access induces more eating disorder exposure.

**Extraction hints:** The 1.28% incidence figure needs careful scoping: this is total incidence in GLP-1 users, not GLP-1 vs. matched controls. The 420,000 person projection is a useful frame for the scale of risk even if the causal fraction is uncertain.

**Context:** STAT News — most credible independent health science journalism publication in the US. This is the article that will likely drive regulatory and clinical attention to the eating disorder signal.

## Curator Notes

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: This is the most current synthesis of the eating disorder risk question from the most credible health journalism source. The 1.28% figure and the "420,000 people" projection give the extractor a population-scale frame for the claim.

EXTRACTION HINT: Use the 1.28% figure CAREFULLY — scope to "incidence in GLP-1 user population without controlled comparison" rather than "GLP-1 causes 1.28% ED rate." The missing control group is the critical methodological gap.
