GLP-1 Telehealth Sites Prescribed to Anorexia Patients, CNN Finds

A 40-year-old Chicago man with a childhood history of anorexia filled out a form on a telehealth website, gave a false weight, and asked for a GLP-1 prescription. He expected a doctor to call. Instead, according to a CNN investigation published October 15, the medication was at his door in about two days, and he never spoke with a clinician face to face or by phone.

The account from AJ Jasper anchors a broader finding in the CNN Business report: eating disorder specialists say they are seeing sharp increases in patients with anorexia using GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, many of them obtained through direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms that ask few questions and rarely verify the answers.

The overlap matters because the two conditions pull in opposite directions. Anorexia nervosa is a disorder defined by severe restriction of food intake, and the drugs millions of people now take to suppress appetite work directly on the mechanism an anorexia patient is already fighting.

A questionnaire standing in for a clinical relationship

Jasper told CNN he cycled through several platforms, including Ro, Good Life Meds, MEDVi and Priority Meds, and bought compounded versions of the drugs rather than brand-name products. Compounded GLP-1s are cheaper and arrive in vials rather than pre-filled pens, which meant he could administer several times the recommended dose.

He described a system with no friction at the point where friction would have helped. When one site required a video consultation, he moved to another. When an intake form asked about a history of eating disorders, he answered no, and a confirmation email followed within a day.

By January, his treatment team insisted he go to a hospital. A friend drove him. He was bed-bound and so malnourished that he could barely lift his head, and his heart, liver and kidneys had begun to fail.

What the numbers suggest about scale

The report cites an estimate from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation that about 3.9 million people worldwide have anorexia nervosa, based on 2023 data.

More directly on point, a study of 436 adults with eating disorders published in June by the University of Louisville and the research institute RTI International found that slightly more than 20 percent of people currently diagnosed with anorexia reported having used a GLP-1 at some point. That is a higher share than the roughly 15 percent of U.S. adults who report ever using the drugs for weight loss.

CNN reported that it spoke with multiple clinicians and eating disorder specialists, all reporting sharp rises in this population. The clinical worry they describe is not that the drugs are unsafe for every patient, but that a disorder built on restriction now has a pharmaceutical accelerant that arrives by mail.

The rules the platforms are operating under

Telehealth prescribing rules in the United States are set state by state and vary widely. According to the Center for Connected Health Policy, every state requires a clinician to establish a relationship with a patient before prescribing, and that can be done through a real-time video or phone call, an earlier in-person visit, or a less immediate method such as a questionnaire. Most states do not allow a questionnaire alone to constitute that relationship.

Illinois, where Jasper lives, requires optometrists to see patients in person before establishing a relationship, but its rules are less explicit for many other specialties and prescription types, according to the investigation.

The result is a patchwork in which the answer to "who is responsible for catching this" can depend on which state the patient's phone is in and which platform's intake flow they happen to be inside. For patients with a documented eating disorder history, the protection may come down to whether they choose to disclose it.

What the platforms say

Hims & Hers told CNN that screening for eating disorders is a mandatory part of its prescribing process and that, as with in-person appointments, clinicians depend on patients to be honest about their health history. A spokesperson said any answer indicating current or past disordered eating triggers additional clinical questions, closer provider review and, in many cases, a referral to specialty eating disorder care off the platform.

Ro said every patient completes an intake form that includes questions about eating disorders. Clinicians use those details to evaluate eligibility and can request records, require a video evaluation or order lab testing, the company said, adding that patients with a history of eating disorders are directed to seek in-person care.

Both companies said they follow up with patients during treatment. Jasper told CNN he ignored the check-in emails.

Where this leaves people seeking care

The investigation lands in the middle of a much larger expansion of virtual prescribing. Telehealth services have removed geographic barriers to addiction and mental health treatment, and that access is real: for people in counties without a psychiatrist or an opioid treatment program, a video visit is sometimes the only route to care.

But the same infrastructure that widens access also widens the gap between a person's stated history and a clinician's ability to verify it. Eating disorders and substance use disorders frequently occur together, and clinicians treating one are expected to screen for the other — a standard that assumes the treating clinician knows the patient's history at all.

For families watching someone relapse, the practical question raised by the reporting is narrower than the policy debate: what a platform does when the honest answer to "have you ever had an eating disorder" is yes. Jasper's answer, at the moment it mattered, was no. People seeking help for co-occurring mental health and substance use conditions can find treatment options through the site's condition guides.