As students head back to school this fall, many are also making trips to the doctor’s office—not for sports physicals or vaccines, but for weight-loss prescriptions.
Doctors in Northeast Ohio said they’re seeing a surge in adolescents interested in starting medications such as semaglutide, sold under the brand names Wegovy, Ozempic and Zepbound. Originally developed to treat diabetes, the drugs have been shown to help young people lose a significant amount of weight.
Nationally, prescriptions for weight-loss drugs for young adults between 12 and 25 years old increased about 600% from 2020 to 2023, growing from nearly 9,000 to over 60,000 prescriptions per month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dr. Courtney Batt, an adolescent medicine and obesity medicine specialist at UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital, said she's seen a steady stream of referrals since she began working in Northeast Ohio two years ago. Her arrival coincided with new guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics supporting prescriptions for kids.
“Any patient 12 and older who has BMI at or above the 95th percentile are candidates for anti-obesity medications,” Batt said. “I am of the mind that we should offer patients any and all treatments that they meet criteria for.”
She said most of her young patients lose at least 5 to 10 percent of their body weight—anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds. She said nausea is a common side effect, but she said it can be managed by staying on a lower dose of the drug. According to the AAP, early treatment can help prevent conditions linked to obesity, including diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers.
However, Batt said despite all the attention the drugs are getting, they're not a cure-all. She sees them more as a tool that gives teens a leg up while they continue exercise and healthy eating.
"What we know is that the mechanisms that make it very hard to lose weight are very real sort of drivers," Batt said. "I don't think weight is something we have any control over. And so when we're setting goals, we're really setting goals in terms of those behavioral modifications."
But the federal Make America Healthy Again report, issued by the Trump administration in May, raised concerns about overmedication in children, and called for a greater focus on prevention strategies of nutrition and exercise.
Pediatricians said limiting treatment options could affect not only kids' weight, but their mental health. Dr. Amy Branam, a family medicine physician at Mercy Health North Lima, said she’s seen semaglutides improve patients’ confidence.
“It actually overall improves their well-being because they feel healthier, they can do what their peers can do,” Branam said. “And that’s what I’ve noticed, the biggest tremendous change in kids.”
