A study indicated that smokers with type 2 diabetes who took semaglutide had a lower likelihood of needing medical attention related to their smoking.
The medication, marketed under the name Wegovy, should be looked at for its potential to help smokers quit, according to research findings.
The study discovered that consuming semaglutide was linked to a lower risk for medical treatment related to tobacco addiction (tobacco use disorder, or TUD) when compared to seven other diabetic drugs.
The likelihood of receiving a TUD diagnosis, a prescription for medicine to quit smoking, or counseling on quitting smoking was lower among drug users.
The researchers reported in the Annals of Internal Medicine publication that semaglutide was linked to decreased it.
Both patients with and without an obese diagnosis had similar results.
“These results imply the necessity for clinical trials to assess semaglutide’s potential for TUD treatment,” they continued.
Semaglutide has been shown to decrease the desire to smoke in some individuals, which has sparked interest in the medication’s potential to aid in quitting smoking.
Similar effects were noted in patients with an obesity diagnosis, according to researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institutes of Health, and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in the US. The majority of the time, the effects became apparent 30 days after the prescription was filled.