By Isabel Cameron, Newsweek
July 29, 2024- Ozempic may be able to help people quit smoking and potentially reduce the need for additional anti-smoking aids, a new study claims.
Researchers from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine examined how effectively Ozempic helps people with type 2 diabetes quit smoking, in comparison to seven other anti-diabetic medications.
The study, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, was inspired by reports from previous Ozempic users, not involved in the research, who noted a decreased desire to smoke while taking the medication.
These reports sparked interest in exploring Ozempic’s potential benefits for treating tobacco use disorders (TUD).
A spokesperson from Novo Nordisk, the Danish pharmaceutical giant behind Ozempic, told Newsweek that the company welcomes independent research into the safety, efficacy, and clinical utility of its products. However, they emphasized that none of their semaglutide-containing medications are approved for the treatment of addiction-related conditions.
“We support our products being prescribed to patients who meet the indicated criteria and only promote the FDA-approved indications of our medicines for appropriate patients,” the spokesperson said.
“While our clinical studies have not been designed to assess the ability of semaglutide on tobacco use disorder (TUD) or other addiction-related illnesses, data from nonclinical, clinical, and post-marketing sources have not shown any evidence indicating a causal relationship between semaglutide and TUD or addiction-related illnesses.”
The study assessed a cohort of patients who had no prior experience with diabetes medications and conducted seven distinct trials comparing Ozempic to other diabetes treatments.
These included: insulin, metformin, DPP-4 inhibitors, SGLT2 inhibitors, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones and other GLP-1 receptor agonists.
Using electronic health records (EHRs), the study authors discovered that after 12 months, patients taking Ozempic were less likely to be diagnosed with TUD, need anti-smoking prescriptions, or require anti-smoking counseling compared to those taking other diabetes medications.
They also confirmed that similar results were observed in patients regardless of whether they had a diagnosis of obesity.
However, they caution that this type of study cannot definitively prove that Ozempic causes people to quit smoking, emphasizing the need for more research in the general population before clinicians consider prescribing Ozempic off-label for smoking cessation.
“Smoking is still a global health problem, and it is therefore interesting to read the findings of this study which examined potential correlations between the prescription of Ozempic and people visiting their doctors for reasons related to tobacco use,” Rachel Richardson, methods support unit manager at medical research organization Cochrane, told Newsweek.
“The nature of the study design means that its findings would need to be examined in large randomised controlled trials before we could conclude that semaglutide might have an impact on smoking cessation. The authors acknowledge a key limitation of their work: a reduction in medical encounters related to tobacco may indicate that people are reducing their use of tobacco, but could also mean that they are less willing to seek help to quit smoking.”
According to the CDC‘s Office on Smoking and Health, tobacco smoking is the leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality, contributing to cardiovascular diseases, various cancers, and overall death rates.
Although quitting smoking significantly reduces the risk of many health problems, fewer than 1 in 10 adult cigarette smokers manage to quit each year.
Notably, the research didn’t track individuals who successfully quit smoking without assistance, potentially leaving a gap in the findings.
While the study included patients with both type 2 diabetes and tobacco use disorder, it didn’t control for the severity of their smoking addiction. However, it did account for prior use of smoking cessation medications and counseling.
Researchers also highlight that Ozempic’s weight loss benefits are especially important because quitting smoking often leads to weight gain, which can cause people, especially women, to relapse.
Additionally, smoking worsens blood sugar control and raises the risk of heart disease and cancer. Therefore, Ozempic’s ability to improve blood sugar levels and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer offers extra advantages.
The study authors note the limitations of the EHR data, as it lacked information relating to the severity of patients’ smoking, including the number of cigarettes smoked per day, severity of craving and withdrawal.
They stress that further clinical trials should be conducted to examine the link, with longer follow-up times.
The news comes after previous research from Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, published in Nature, which found that Ozempic use is associated with lower risks of both developing and relapsing into cannabis use disorder.
Cannabis use disorder is often linked to cigarette smoking, with up to 90 percent of individuals using both substances.
