New study shows Ozempic is associated with a 28% reduction in nicotine use disorder and 48% reduction in dementia risk
Compared to other diabetes medications, Ozempic shows significant brain health benefits.
Smoking causes more deaths than any other substance use disorder. In the US, 480,000 people die annually from smoking-related causes.
A new real-world retrospective cohort study using electronic health records from TriNetX shows a 28% reduction in nicotine use disorder for patients taking semaglutide (Ozempic) vs other diabetes medications.
The study also shows significant reductions in cognitive deficits and a 48% reduction in dementia vs sitagliptin.
Here’s the key table:
Reductions in nicotine use on this scale have massive public health benefits.
Randomized controlled trials for smoking cessation are showing similar results. Dr. Luba Yammine has shown efficacy for exenatide, an older generation GLP-1RA, and she is running an extremely important Phase 2 trial of semaglutide that will track smoking cessation rates.
Holistic Health Benefits
In our comprehensive review of the medical evidence for GLP-1s and addiction, we made the case that the holistic health benefits to patients, beyond just addiction reduction, will dramatically increase the appeal of these treatments vs existing medications for addiction, which are used by only 3% of people with substance use disorders. This retrospective study reinforces the widely observed improvements in mortality and brings further evidence of cognitive benefits of GLP-1RAs.
That semaglutide was not associated with an increased risk for any psychiatric outcomes is important. The lack of psychiatric adverse outcomes (and corresponding safety signals) is highly relevant to the care of patients with T2DM, who have a high burden of mental illness,29 while also providing reassurance at a general population level.
GLP-1s have shown efficacy in reducing Parkinson’s decline and Semaglutide is currently in Phase 3 for Alzheimer’s disease, with results expected in 2025-26.
The authors of this study also considered the possibility that the positive health effects, particularly for dementia are caused indirectly by weight loss or other metabolic benefits:
One possibility is that any protective effect of GLP1-RAs on cognition is mediated by their effect on cardiovascular morbidity.7 However, the lack of consistent association with ischaemic strokes suggests that other mechanisms might also be at play. These might include other neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory mechanisms,9, 10, 11 supported by measurements of systemic inflammation in people exposed to semaglutide.27 As these are partly shared with SGLT2I,28 this hypothesis would also explain why no difference in cognitive outcomes were observed when semaglutide was compared with the SGLT2I empagliflozin.
More on GLP-1RAs and addiction: