Research suggests that the "miracle" weight loss injection could help boost brain health and even reduce people's dependence on nicotine.
Semaglutide, sold under the brand names Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, has been hailed as a "groundbreaking" achievement in the fight against obesity.
Now, according to British experts, the injections could also reduce the risk of cognitive decline, drug abuse, and even brain inflammation, compared to other diabetes drugs.
Researchers have not determined why the drugs, which belong to a class of medications called GLP-1 agonists, might help in this way.
Instead, they described the findings as "important" and said they could pave the way for new treatments, but cautioned that more research was needed.
“Our findings suggest that the use of semaglutide could extend beyond diabetes management, potentially offering unexpected benefits in the treatment and prevention of cognitive decline and substance misuse,” said Dr Riccardo De Giorgi, an expert in adult psychiatry at the University of Oxford and lead author of the study. “The results of our study therefore not only help to reassure the millions of patients who rely on semaglutide to manage their diabetes, but if confirmed, could also have significant public health implications in terms of reducing cognitive impairment and smoking rates among people with diabetes.”
“Our study is observational, so these results need to be replicated in a randomised trial to confirm and extend our findings,” added Dr Max Tacke, co-author of the study and an expert in the treatment of psychiatric disorders at the University of Oxford. “However, it is good news for patients with psychiatric disorders, who are at increased risk of developing diabetes.”
In the study, researchers followed more than 120,000 Americans with type 2 diabetes between 2017 and 2021.
Over a year of follow-up, they compared the risks of 22 neurological and psychiatric conditions between patients taking semaglutide with those taking the type 2 diabetes drug sitagliptin.
A second group of semaglutide users was compared with those taking empagliflozin and glipizide, both also type 2 diabetes medications.
The 22 conditions evaluated included encephalitis, Parkinson's disease, cognitive impairment, dementia, epilepsy, migraine, insomnia, neurological disorders, muscle diseases, and intracranial hemorrhage.
Other conditions include stroke, alcohol abuse, opioid abuse, cannabis abuse, stimulant abuse, nicotine abuse, psychosis, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and suicide.
“Semaglutide was not associated with an increased risk of neuropsychiatric outcomes,” the scientists wrote in the journal eClinical Medicine. “Instead, after correction for multiple testing, semaglutide was associated with a reduced risk of many of these outcomes.”
The greatest risk reduction was seen in encephalitis, with patients taking semaglutide having a 74% lower risk of developing the condition than those taking glipizide and a 65% lower risk than those taking sitagliptin.
Semaglutide users were also 28% less likely to develop cognitive decline than those taking other diabetes medications.
Other significant reductions in dementia were noted, with a 48% lower risk for sitagliptin and a 37% lower risk for glipizide.
Nicotine abuse was 28% lower for glipizide and 23% lower for empagliflozin.
However, the researchers acknowledged that the study had "several limitations," including not controlling for variables such as whether the patient was taking their medication regularly, and that the study was observational.