A recent study has found that GLP-1 medications, such as Ozempic, do not significantly improve mental health, employment status, marriage, or overall well-being in adults with diabetes. Researchers from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, including economist Robert Kaestner and coauthor Cuiping Schiman, analyzed over 10 years of data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. This survey is a nationally representative dataset that tracks health and economic factors in the U.S. population. The study focused on adults with diabetes between 2012 and 2023, following the same individuals over time to see if their circumstances changed after beginning treatment with GLP-1 medications. The researchers looked at several indicators of well-being, including depression symptoms, psychological distress, self-rated health, employment, and marital status. They found that initial differences between people who used GLP-1 drugs and those who didn’t—such as in employment and marriage—tended to disappear when they examined changes within the same individuals over time. This suggests that the initial differences might have been due to characteristics of the people who chose to use GLP-1 medications, rather than the medications themselves causing those changes. The results remained consistent whether the researchers looked at people after about one year of GLP-1 use or followed them for two years. In both cases, they found little evidence that taking the medications led to meaningful changes in the broader life outcomes they measured. Kaestner noted that this does not prove GLP-1 drugs have no effects beyond physical health. Some changes may be more subtle or harder to detect with the methods used in the study. The researchers emphasized that their findings do not challenge the medical benefits of GLP-1 medications. For adults with diabetes, the most clearly measurable benefits remain those already established in clinical research, such as better blood sugar control, weight loss, and improved physical health. As GLP-1 medications are increasingly used for weight management in people without diabetes, researchers hope to study whether broader social effects might emerge in other groups or over longer periods of time.