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How weight loss jab makes you think twice about food
- A pioneering US study suggests the weight loss drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide) may curb food cravings by suppressing specific brain signals.
- Researchers implanted electrodes in a patient's brain to directly record activity, observing that Mounjaro reduced low-frequency delta-theta brain signals in the nucleus accumbens, linked to food preoccupation.
- The study involved three severely obese patients, with one patient on Mounjaro showing a decline in these brain signals and cravings, though they returned after a few months.
- Dr Simon Cork of Anglia Ruskin University cautioned that the findings, published in Nature Medicine, are based on a single patient with a specific and rare condition, and should not be generalised to the wider population.
- Mounjaro is approved for use on the NHS for type 2 diabetes and weight management, with strict eligibility criteria, and is expected to be given to 240,000 people over three years.
