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A new study suggests there is an association between the use of semaglutide and reduced rates of smoking disorder treatment in people with type 2 diabetes.
CNN
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The growing evidence is Use Semaglutide Decreased drug useA new large study shows a promising link between the drug and smoking, but experts stress that more research is needed before the drug can be used off-label for smoking cessation.
in study In a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers tracked the medical records of more than 200,000 people who started taking medications for type 2 diabetes, including about 6,000 people taking semaglutide-based drugs such as Ozempic.
Over the course of one year, people who initiated semaglutide were significantly less likely to have a medical consultation for smoking disorder, be prescribed smoking cessation medication, or receive smoking cessation counselling than people who initiated other diabetes medications, such as insulin or metformin.
The study authors note that there are many reasons why individuals may be less likely to seek treatment for a smoking disorder, including smoking less or being less willing to seek help to quit.
Dr. Disha Narang, an endocrinologist and director of obesity medicine at Endeavor Health in Chicago, who was not involved in the study, said it’s likely a mix of drug-related and patient-related changes.
“If you have a patient with type 2 diabetes who is taking one of these medications and has a history of smoking, often the appointment will include a discussion about quitting smoking,” she said. “These people, because they’re being treated for diabetes, are paying extra attention to their long-term health and may start to change some habits.”
The new study also did not measure the severity of smoking, such as the number of cigarettes consumed per day, desire to quit or withdrawal symptoms.
Understanding how semaglutide affects these factors is “critical” for determining whether the drug can be used to help people quit smoking, said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and co-author of the new report. She also said more research is needed to understand appropriate dosing and side effects before the blockbuster drug can be used in new ways.
But other early studies suggest that semaglutide and other GLP-1 drugs may interact with the brain’s reward system, regulating cravings for food, nicotine, alcohol and other drugs.
“The main reason why many of us overeat has to do with reinforcing the positive responses we get from eating certain foods, and it’s the same circuitry for both foods and drugs,” Volkow said.
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Although important questions remain, Dr. Volkow said he was surprised at how consistent the findings were about the relationship between semaglutide use and reduced medication use across different drugs and different patient groups, and the new study saw similar associations in people with and without obesity.
“Signs like this can’t be ignored, especially if new drugs are actually developed to treat smoking cessation, and the impact could be enormous,” she said. “It could have huge health implications.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking rates in the United States have decreased over the years, but smoking remains a leading cause of preventable disease and death. Recent Research A study by the American Cancer Society found that smoking contributes to about one-fifth of new cancer cases and one-third of cancer deaths each year.
However, new research shows that fewer than 1 in 10 adult smokers successfully quit each year, and smoking cessation treatment options have not changed significantly in decades.
