Some GLP-1 medications could treat smoking addiction, research suggests

01 Aug 2024 --- Patients with tobacco use disorder experience a reduced desire to smoke when treated with semaglutide — a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) medication for type 2 diabetes and obesity — finds a new study conducted at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, US.

The research team analyzed the electronic health records of nearly 229,000 US patients with both type 2 diabetes and tobacco use disorder from 2017 to 2023. Those receiving a semaglutide treatment were less likely to seek healthcare services related to their smoking addiction compared to those prescribed other types of diabetes medication.

“While there are effective medications to support people if they wish to stop smoking, not everyone responds to them,” says Rong Xu, research lead, biomedical informatics professor and director of the medical school’s Center for AI in Drug Discovery.

“As a result of the high relapse rates, alternative medications to help people stop smoking are needed.”

The study highlights several healthcare services as tobacco use disorder-related, including medical attention for a diagnosis, smoking cessation medication prescriptions and counseling.

The seven other antidiabetic medications assessed alongside semaglutide are insulins, metformin, dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones and other GLP-1RAs.

Treating addiction
The research team behind the study published in Annals of Internal Medicine acknowledges that the reduced likelihood of seeking medical services to treat the disorder could also indicate a smoking relapse or decreased interest in quitting, alongside the possibility that it signifies a reduced desire to smoke.

Therefore, they are recommending further scientific research into the use of semaglutide to treat tobacco use disorder before doctors start prescribing the drug in such a way.

The WHO outlined tobacco use as a risk factor for a number of health conditions, including cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, strokes, diabetes, cancer and other life-threatening conditions.

The organization estimated that tobacco kills more than eight million people every year, smoking kills a further seven million, while secondhand smoke contributes to another 1.3 million annual deaths.

A recent large-scale study conducted in the UK found that smokers tend to have a lower body weight and body mass index than non-smokers and associate quitting with a fear of gaining weight. For this reason, the researchers recommended that governments offer nutritional support to smokers to help them fight the addiction.

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