A new study from researchers at Oxford University in England has found that semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, may be tied to a lower risk of cognitive issues, including dementia.
The retrospective cohort study, published July 10 in The Lancet's eClinicalMedicine journal, is based on researchers' analysis of medical records from more than 100 million U.S. patients. Researchers set out to determine whether patients taking semaglutide are at increased risk of neurologic and psychiatric outcomes within the first year of use compared to three other common anti-diabetic drugs.
The study found Ozempic was not associated with a higher risk of any of the 22 neurological and psychiatric conditions included in the study, such as depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder. Additionally, the study showed patients taking Ozempic had a nearly 50% lower risk of dementia relative to those taking sitagliptin, an older Type 2 diabetes drug, and had a lower risk of smoking than those taking glipizide, another older medicine.
More robust studies including a randomized clinical trial are needed to confirm semaglutide's potential cognitive benefits, researchers said.
The study is the latest to hint at ancillary benefits that Ozempic and drugs like it may carry outside of weight loss. Researchers are investigating whether GLP-1s can treat kidney disease-related events, sleep apnea, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis and other conditions.