An international study found nail detachment, discolouration and hair loss were more common among people taking GLP-1 medicines, although researchers stressed that the findings do not establish a direct cause.
A new international study presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress in Vienna has found that people taking GLP-1 drugs for obesity or type 2 diabetes reported more nail and hair problems than similar patients who had never used the medicines. The findings add to a growing list of questions about the wider effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists, a class that includes widely used weight-loss and diabetes treatments such as semaglutide and tirzepatide.
According to the research, which drew on 1,904 volunteers from France, the United States, Brazil and Mexico, 66% of GLP-1 users reported at least one nail problem, compared with 53% in the control group. Nail discolouration showed a particularly clear gap: 46% of GLP-1 users said they experienced it, versus 17% of non-users. Nail detachment was also more common among people taking the drugs, with 39% reporting it compared with 9% of those who had never used GLP-1 medicines.
The researchers compared 575 GLP-1 users with 1,329 people who also had obesity or type 2 diabetes but had not taken the drugs. They said they took account of skin conditions and nutritional deficiencies in their analysis, and the associations weakened in some areas but remained roughly two to three times more common for nail detachment and discolouration among GLP-1 users. They also examined weight loss itself and found the differences stayed statistically significant when the analysis focused on people dieting, suggesting that weight loss alone may not explain the findings. Even so, the researchers stressed that the data do not prove a direct cause-and-effect link.
A companion analysis of the same participants looked at hair and scalp symptoms. Half of the GLP-1 users reported unusual hair loss, compared with 34% of the control group. Reduced hair volume or density affected 42% of users, versus 19% of non-users. The study also found that hair loss among GLP-1 users was often accompanied by scalp complaints such as itching, redness or flaking. A separate study indexed in PubMed has also linked semaglutide and tirzepatide with higher odds of non-scarring hair loss, including a pattern known as telogen effluvium, which can follow physical stress on the body.
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