Specialist in Denver says popular weight loss meds impact eating disorder treatments
The medical director of an eating disorder clinic at Denver Health says popular medications that are being used as weight loss drugs are impacting patients who are being treated for a variety of eating disorders.
"It's really becoming a big problem," said Dr. Patricia Westmoreland, who oversees the ACUTE Center for Eating Disorders & Severe Malnutrition.
The clinic helps patients with medical complications from severe eating disorders.
"If your favorite celebrity is taking these medications, maybe you should be taking it, too, is kind of what they think," said Westmoreland.
She said the clinic, which can house 30 patients, is seeing an increasing number of patients who have tried medications like Wegovy, which is designed for weight loss. In some cases, Westmoreland said patients obtain the meds from family members, but in other cases, men and women with eating disorders are obtaining them from doctors who are not trained to recognize eating disorders.
"Certainly I have heard from a number of patients that they have attempted and actually successfully obtained these medications," said Westmoreland.
She said the number of her patients impacted by the weight loss medications is about 10% "but growing."
A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy and Ozempic, told CBS News Colorado, "Novo Nordisk is committed to the responsible use of our medicines. We support our products being prescribed to patients who meet the indicated criteria and only promote the FDA-approved indications of our medicines for appropriate patients."
Maggie O'Rourke, 47, who was being treated for anorexia at the clinic when a CBS News Colorado crew visited, shared an email she said she had received just hours earlier, offering to have "Ozempic delivered to your house." Ozempic was designed to treat type 2 diabetes, and is not approved for weight loss, but some doctors do prescribe it for weight loss. The active ingredient in Ozempic, semaglutide, has been shown to help individuals lose weight. O' Rourke said she had no idea how she ended up on the email distribution list.
"I was like, you have to be kidding," said O'Rourke. "I am the wrong person to be sending this to."
While O'Rourke said she had never used Ozempic or Wegovy, she understood why they were appealing to young women.
"People want to be thin and beautiful," she said. She urged women to "just be yourself because everyone is beautiful in their own way."
It's a lesson she is learning after decades of having -- and hiding -- an eating disorder.
"This is not a way to live. It's miserable," said O'Rourke, reflecting on a condition that left her weighing just 70 pounds. "I've lost so much of my own life because I've been so entangled in my eating disorder."
She said she struggled with an eating disorder beginning at age 7 and was admitted to Denver Health's ACUTE clinic about a month ago. "I was pretty much dead when I walked in here. My friends had to bring me in. I was just a shell of a person."
O'Rourke, who grew up in Evergreen, was a standout soccer player and played Division I soccer. But she said she was always self-conscious of her body and descended into a destructive eating disorder.
"It's about mental illness," she said, and finding coping mechanisms that helped her feel in control of her life.
She said the clinic treatment left her feeling "amazing," and she hoped sharing her story might help others struggling with eating disorders.
"Life's a gift," said O'Rourke. "And I don't want to waste it."
