A NEW study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine has found that semaglutide is linked to a reduced need for medical care related to tobacco use disorder (TUD) in smokers suffering from type 2 diabetes.
Compared to seven other anti-diabetes medications, patients on semaglutide were less likely to seek medical help for TUD, including those receiving a diagnosis, smoking cessation medication, or counselling.
Conducted by researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, and the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, the study used a target trial emulation framework.
The researchers compared the new use of semaglutide to other diabetes medication in three groups: patients with both type 2 diabetes and TUD, those with both conditions plus obesity, and those without obesity.
It was found that semaglutide was associated with lower smoking-related health care utilisation across all groups, within 30 days of prescription.
The findings align with previous reports suggesting semaglutide might reduce the desire to smoke, but the researchers caution against using it off-label for smoking cessation without further clinical trials to confirm its efficacy. JG
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