When Georgie Robinson began weekly injections of Mounjaro, she hoped it would help her shed the excess weight she had carried for more than a decade.
What she didn’t expect was the extraordinary effect the blockbuster slimming jab would have on her ADHD, a condition she had struggled with for as long as she could remember.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder affects concentration, impulse control and the ability to stay organised. For Georgie, 33, it meant constant restlessness, unfinished tasks and feeling, as she put it, ‘bad at life’.
She says: ‘I had hoped the jab would help me lose weight. But I realised that when I took them, it was as if the static in my head had dialled down. I could put laundry away, run the dishwasher, declutter the house – things that had felt impossible before.’
Georgie, from Petersfield in Hampshire, lives with her sales director husband Greg and their six-year-old daughter Margo.
Once a keen hockey player, she gradually gained weight until she reached her heaviest at 21st. ‘I had a personal trainer two or three times a week, I ate healthily but the weight just wouldn’t shift,’ she says.
Georgie Robinson was struggling with her weight and ADHD when she started taking Mounjaro weight-loss jabs
After months of hesitation, she decided to try Mounjaro. Within ten weeks on the lowest 2.5mg dose, she had lost two stone. Over the following months, the weight reduction slowed but the total loss reached 4st. She returned to hockey.
At the same time, Georgie was pursuing another suspicion: ADHD. Awareness and diagnoses have soared in recent years, particularly among women, as doctors recognise the condition – that affects about 2.6 million people in the UK – often presents differently to the hyperactive boys it was once thought to affect.
Recalling her diagnosis in March, after a video consultation, Georgie says: ‘I felt like a weight had lifted off me. For the first time in years, I could stop blaming myself.’
The revelation of just how much Mounjaro was helping came by accident. Last month, when a price hike left her without the drug for two weeks, she says the cravings for high calorie treats returned – but so did her ADHD symptoms.
Georgie says: ‘I felt hungrier, I expected that, but what shocked me was my brain. Suddenly I couldn’t finish jobs. I was back to half-done tasks, impulsive spending, emotional ups and downs.
‘When I restarted Mounjaro, it all settled again. I could focus, I could tick off my to-do lists.’
Within ten weeks on the lowest 2.5mg dose of Mounjaro, Georgie had lost 2st
Doctors have long known that blood-sugar fluctuations can affect mood, concentration and impulsivity. Mounjaro, known generically as tirzepatide, was originally developed for type 2 diabetes and helps regulate insulin and appetite.
Georgie says: ‘It could just be that by changing my diet with Mounjaro, it’s stabilising my blood-sugar levels, which could be quietening my brain – but it feels like more than that.’
There is mounting evidence weight-loss jabs may have benefits far beyond slimming and diabetes control. Large clinical trials show they can slash the risk of heart disease while early studies suggest they may dampen addictive behaviours, such as alcohol cravings.
When it comes to ADHD, however, doctors stress there is no clinical trial evidence the drugs make a difference. However, anecdotal reports are emerging in patient forums – and other reports have claimed anti-diabetic medication semaglutide ‘may be able to soften the traits of ADHD’.
Another striking change for Georgie has been relief from PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), a severe form of PMS. She says: ‘Since being on Mounjaro, I haven’t had PMDD symptoms. It’s like a double gift.’
Experts caution against reading too much into such personal accounts, however. Katya Rubia, professor of cognitive neuroscience at King’s College London, says there is ‘substantial evidence of overlap’ between ADHD and obesity, which may explain why some report crossover benefits.
She adds: ‘ADHD is significantly more common among people with obesity. This relationship is complex and likely multifactorial. Shared behavioural characteristics.
‘At the biological level, there appears to be both a genetic and neurobiological overlap. Neuroimaging studies suggest shared dysfunctions in brain networks, particularly dopamine-related reward pathways and the frontal lobes.
‘This may explain why individuals with ADHD often experience food cravings. There is also evidence inflammation in the brain, potentially influenced by poor diet, may contribute to both ADHD and obesity, and this may also help explain links with depression and anxiety.
‘However, it remains difficult to determine the direction of causality – whether ADHD predisposes to obesity, obesity contributes to ADHD symptoms, or whether both share common underlying mechanisms. The relationship is likely to vary between individuals.’
But Georgie says: ‘Mounjaro gave me back my body – but the real gift is that it helped me find my mind.’