Doctors at its Banbury Lodge clinic in Banbury, Oxfordshire, say 28 out of the 48 patients they have treated for eating disorders this year \u2013 nearly two-thirds \u2013 were using the powerful drugs, which can reduce bodyweight by up to 20 per cent.<\/p>\n
Some patients were as young as 16, the doctors add.<\/p>\n
Experts at the clinic say the problem has significantly worsened in six months. Last year, no patient was using the jabs.<\/p>\n
The revelation raises fresh concerns about how easy it is to get hold of the drugs, and the lack of effective safeguards.<\/p>\n
They are only licensed for use on the NHS by people who are obese and have weight-related health problems \u2013 but there is a huge private market for the treatments and a spiralling black market.<\/p>\n
Dimitri Theofili, eating disorder therapist at Banbury Lodge, said: \u2018What we\u2019re seeing is really concerning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Sixty](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/98935851-14856985-Semaglutide_sold_as_Ozempic_and_Wegovy_is_used_to_address_weight-a-1_1751138470518.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Sixty per cent of patients at a leading clinic seeking help for eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia are using weight-loss jabs<\/p>\n
![\"Dimitri](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/99821371-14856985-image-a-2_1751138553733.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Dimitri Theofili, eating disorder therapist at Banbury Lodge, said 28 out of the 48 patients they have treated for eating disorders this year \u2013 nearly two-thirds \u2013 were using the powerful drugs, which can reduce bodyweight by up to 20 per cent<\/p>\n
Clients as young as 16 are revealing during therapy that they are misusing weight-loss injections to fuel their unhealthy relationship with food.<\/p>\n
\u2018This is all about psychological control \u2013 the need to control what they\u2019re putting into their body.<\/p>\n
Society\u2019s acceptance of weight- loss jabs to tackle weight loss rather than their main intended purpose \u2013 to help control type 2 diabetes or to tackle clinical obesity \u2013 has fuelled this notion that if you\u2019re not using a weight- loss jab to lose weight, then you\u2019re falling behind.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
Campaigners said last night that urgent action needs to be taken to restrict use of the jabs to protect vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
Tom Quinn, director of external affairs at the UK\u2019s eating disorder charity Beat, said the statistics are \u2018very concerning\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018These medications are extremely dangerous for people with eating disorders because they can worsen harmful eating behaviours and thoughts for people who are unwell, or contribute to an eating disorder developing in those who are at risk,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
\u2018It should be mandatory for thorough mental health assessments to be carried out alongside physical health checks, and for regular check-ins if someone is prescribed weight-loss drugs, including once the course of treatment is over.\u2019<\/p>\n
Some 500,000 people in Britain are thought to be taking Ozempic, Wegovy or Mounjaro, most via private prescriptions.<\/p>\n
Concerns have been raised about the lack of safeguards around such prescriptions.<\/p>\n
Little is known about the safety of the jabs for people of normal weight \u2013 let alone those with eating disorders who may already be severely underweight.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re worried about your own or someone else\u2019s health you can contact Beat, the UK\u2019s eating disorder charity, on 0808 801 0677 or at beateatingdisorders.org.uk<\/p>\n
Share or comment on this article:
\n Three out of five anorexia patients at top eating disorders clinic tell docs they’ve been using weight-loss jabs like Ozempic or Mounjaro – including children as young as SIXTEEN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By DOMINIK LEMANSKI Published: 22:07 BST, 28 June 2025 | Updated: 22:07 BST, 28 June 2025 Sixty per…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[92,105,211,370,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-222737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dailymail","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-nhs","11":"tag-ozempic","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114764034026263419","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}