‘People don’t realise the dangers’: Warning after hundreds of semaglutide overdoses
Around 7% of calls followed deliberate misuse of semaglutide for weight loss, according to the NSW Poisons Information Centre.
The social media frenzy around semaglutide may have contributed to dozens of overdoses, says a leading endocrinologist, with poisons information centres seeing a spike in calls relating to medication errors.
The NSW Poisons Information Centre said it had received around 120 calls related to semaglutide (Ozempic) in the 12 months to October 2023.
The centre, which takes roughly half of Australian poisoning calls, had received 430 calls for all GLP-1 receptor agonists from 2019, mostly semaglutide, with a jump in calls around 2022.
Mistakes typically occurred when patients initiated therapy or during dose escalation, said poisons centre senior specialist Kristy Carter.
