Trulicity side effects are primarily GI-related. Most patients develop nausea, vomiting, bloating, and abdominal fullness.
Little is known about the neurological side effects of Trulicity. However, post-marketing reports of patients who have developed neurological side effects are being reported.
What is Trulicity?
Trulicity is the brand name under which “Dulaglutide” is sold. It is the medicine used to treat type 2 diabetes along with diet and exercise.
It belongs to the class of drugs called “GLP-1 analogs”. These drugs act by enhancing the release of insulin in a glucose-dependent mechanism.
Along with insulin release, Trulicity also causes fullness as it slows the movements of the stomach thereby suppressing appetite.
Trulicity FDA Approval
Trulicity has been approved by the FDA in the United States to lower major the risks of major cardiovascular events in adults with type 2 diabetes who have developed a cardiovascular illness or are at an increased risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (Ref).
It got its approval from the FDA on 18th September 2014. It is given in a dose of one injection of 1.5 mg per week.
It is a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 agonist) comprising GLP-1(7-37) covalently connected to an Fc section of human IgG4.
GLP-1 is a chemical that is engaged with the standardization of the level of glucose in the blood (glycemia).
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) endorsed dulaglutide for use in the United States in September 2014.
It was supported for use in the European Union in November 2014. In 2019, it was the 134th most regularly recommended medicine in the United States, with over 5 million prescriptions.
Medical Use of Trulicity (Dulaglutide):
This medicine is prescribed for grown-ups with type 2 diabetes mellitus as an addition to diet and exercise to improve glycemic control.
Dulaglutide is not indicated for the treatment of patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus or patients with diabetic ketoacidosis because these issues are the after effect of the islet cells being not able to form insulin and one of the activities of dulaglutide is to activate working islet cells to deliver more insulin.
Dulaglutide can be utilized either independently or in combination with metformin or other oral antidiabetic drugs specifically sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones, and insulin are taken associatively with meals.
Trulicity has been shown to lower the hemoglobin A1c by roughly 1% with the 0.75 mg and 1.5 mg portions of the medicine, alongside around 5 pounds of weight reduction approximately.
The higher 3.0 mg and 4.5 mg dosages that were supported in 2020 exhibited hemoglobin A1c decreases nearer to 1.5% and somewhat more weight loss.
Mechanism of Action of Trulicity:
It works by binding to peptide 1 receptors similar to glucagon and enhances the insulin secretion by Beta cells.
Moreover, it slows the emptying of the stomach and lowers the increased glucagon levels which are otherwise high in diabetic patients. L-cells of GIT mucosa normally secrete GLP-1 after intake of the meal.
Trulicity Side effects:
The most usual side effects of Trulicity are the following:
- GIT disorders
- Indigestion (Upset stomach)
- Anorexia (loss of appetite)
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Stomach pain
- Diarrhea
- Medullary thyroid carcinoma
- Pancreatitis
- Hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels)
Who should not receive Trulicity?
Anyone having a family history of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 2 and medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) should avoid the use of dulaglutide as it increases the chance of these cancers.
It should also be avoided if a person has a person or a family history of MEN-2 syndrome or MTC.
Trulicity Side effect Nausea:
Nausea occurs usually while initially starting Trulicity treatment. In examinations, 8% to 29% utilizing Trulicity encountered some queasiness, which regularly happened during the initial 2 to 3 days after they took their most memorable portion.
Nausea for the most part died down after the initial fourteen days, yet certain individuals experienced sickness with Trulicity past their second seven-day stretch of therapy. Under 2% expected to quit taking Trulicity as a result of nausea.
At the point when you enhance your dose of Trulicity, you could encounter some side effects. With the higher dose, around 16% of individuals experienced queasiness and around 1% of individuals quit taking Trulicity as a result of it.
Trulicity Side effect Pancreatitis:
Pancreatitis is a serious side effect of GLP-1 analogs including Trulicity. People may develop severe pain in the upper stomach reaching back, sickness, nausea, vomiting, and hypotension.
If any signs or symptoms of pancreatitis are observed, Trulcity treatment should be immediately stopped and appropriate treatment should be given.
Symptoms of thyroid growth and MTC:
Expanding or an irregularity in your neck, inconvenience in eating, heavy voice, and difficulty in breathing should warrant investigating for MTC (medullary thyroid cancer).
Low glucose:
Hypoglycemia is not a side effect of Trulicity but if given with insulin or other oral drugs, the risk of hypoglycemia is increased.
People may notice headaches, migraine, hunger, sweating, mood swings, increased heartbeat, quick pulse, or feeling anxiety.
Kidney issues:
Very less or no production of urine, swelling of feet or lower legs, feeling drained, and difficulty in breathing may be observed if a person’s kidneys start failing while using Trulicity.
Trulicity Neurological Side effects: Depression and Mood Swings
The main neurological side effects associated with Trulicity include nausea, mood changes, and dizziness because it affects a person’s ability to feel pleasure and a person’s concentration when he or she takes the drugs.
A person who’s affected by Trulicity may also become confused in routine work.
At times the people who suffer from depression may go back to being depressed after taking the drug.
These side effects may lead a person to do something completely different. People with depression might get sleepy once or twice during the day and therefore may not get the right amount of sleep that their bodies need at night.
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People who also suffer from depression would sometimes find that they tend to overeat as they are tired of having a balanced diet due to the medications they are taking.
Depression can be triggered by the wrong kind of food. This is because there is a possibility of the depressed eating too much food. To avoid or deal with Trulicity some people would attempt to lose weight by exercising or drinking lots of water.
Exercise is one way of dealing with the neurological side effects of Trulicity, and many different kinds of exercises are suitable for the management of depression, including aerobic and HIIT exercises, yoga, resistance training, and running. Resistance training is also ideal for both men and women who suffer from depression.
Clinical Research
453 examinations surveying 21 antidiabetic mediations from 9 different classes of drugs were incorporated.
The research included monotherapies (134 preliminaries), an add-on to metformin-based treatments (296 preliminaries), and monotherapies versus add-on to metformin treatments (23 preliminaries).
There were no distinctions between medicines in drug-guileless patients with less chance of cardiovascular disorders.
Insulin regimens and explicit glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) added to metformin-based foundation treatment delivered the best decreases in hemoglobin A1c level.
Sotagliflozin Side effects, Precautions, and Contraindications
In patients with less chance of cardiovascular disease getting metformin-based foundation treatment (298 preliminaries), there were no clinically significant contrasts between medicines for mortality and vascular results.
In patients at expanded cardiovascular gamble getting metformin-based foundation treatment (21 preliminaries), oral Semaglutide, Empagliflozin, Liraglutide, extended-release-exenatide, and Dapagliflozin decreased all-cause mortality.
Oral Semaglutide (Rybelsus), Empagliflozin (Jardiance), and Liraglutide (Victoza) additionally decreased cardiovascular mortality.
The chances of stroke were lower with subcutaneous Semaglutide and Trulicity. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 (SGLT-2) inhibitors diminished cardiovascular breakdown hospitalization and end-stage renal infection.
Subcutaneous Semaglutide (Ozempic) and Canagliflozin (Invokana) increased the chances of patients developing diabetic retinopathy [Ref]