University of Pennsylvania used AI to analyze nearly 150,000 Reddit posts, finding unexpected symptom reports for the unapproved weight-loss drug retatrutide
A University of Pennsylvania team used AI to analyze nearly 150,000 Reddit posts and comments, identifying about 14,000 users out of roughly 40,000 who claimed to use the unapproved drug retatrutide, of whom 7,823 reported medically classifiable symptoms. Among the classifiable symptoms, increased appetite was the most common, differing from the drug's appetite-suppressing design and from Phase 2 trial records dominated by gastrointestinal discomfort; compared with previous analyses of semaglutide and tirzepatide, the related discussions mentioned appetite changes, sleep disturbances, elevated heart rate and muscle-related symptoms at higher proportions. The researchers emphasized that these self-reports cannot prove the drug caused the symptoms, nor can they confirm whether users actually took genuine retatrutide; the results are intended to generate hypotheses worthy of further verification, and the paper was published in JAMA Network Open.
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