Ozempic and the biological model of addiction
Addiction Economy Thought for Today - In our White Paper on the 5 Models of Addiction we outline the pros and cons of Addiction As A Disease. This way of thinking is the dominant way of looking at addiction now. But there are real drawbacks, as thepaper in The Lancet below shows.
Look how this view of obesity in the Abstract totally is all about the person and the issue as a disease and ignores the economic drivers of ill health. If it's a disease, the solution is seen as pharmacological. Hello Ozempic.
But when you stop your Ozempic, the commercial environment dominated by Ultra-Processed Foods remains. The ingredients and formulations which are deliberately designed to undermine your ability to control your eating remain. The psychological reasons you thought this type of food was a useful act of self-care remain. No surprise then that it appears that like other pharma options, the bounce back to one's previous weight also seems to happen with Ozempic.
The restriction by policy and regulation of UPF foods and its replacement with nutrition based food is the only long term option. But then the Addiction Economy around The Disease Model is not exciting to investors, making that harder still for policy folks to challenge.
Article and Abstract:
https://lnkd.in/ejGdExCH
"Obesity has increased in prevalence worldwide and WHO has declared it a global epidemic. Population-level preventive interventions have been insufficient to slow down this trajectory. Obesity is a complex, heterogeneous, chronic, and progressive disease, which substantially affects health, quality of life, and mortality.
"Lifestyle and behavioural interventions are key components of obesity management; however, when used alone, they provide substantial and durable response in a minority of people. Bariatric (metabolic) surgery remains the most effective and durable treatment, with proven benefits beyond weight loss, including for cardiovascular and renal health, and decreased rates of obesity-related cancers and mortality.
"Considerable progress has been made in the development of pharmacological agents that approach the weight loss efficacy of metabolic surgery, and relevant outcome data related to these agents' use are accumulating. However, all treatment approaches to obesity have been vastly underutilised.
Challenge to The Disease Model:
Here is an excellent collection of articles from a group of academic evaluating and challenging the Disease model of addiction.
https://lnkd.in/e8ERrUh2