Semaglutide and Smoking: Can It Help You Quit?

Semaglutide and smoking research has found signs of lower cigarette craving, but it hasn't established semaglutide as a quitting treatment. GLP-1 medicines, which copy a gut hormone involved in appetite and blood sugar, are not approved for smoking cessation. Cessation means stopping smoking.

Someone prescribed semaglutide for weight management may notice a change in cravings. That change isn't a reason to replace a quitting plan or adjust the prescription. The useful question is what the studies actually measured: urges, cigarettes smoked, or lasting abstinence, meaning remaining smoke-free.

Semaglutide and smoking: cravings aren't the same as quitting

Researchers are interested in reward signalling, the brain's messages that make an experience feel worth repeating. The hypothesis is that GLP-1 medicines could influence those messages. That doesn't establish how they affect nicotine dependence, meaning difficulty stopping nicotine use, in a person.

A craving score asks how strongly someone wants a cigarette. A daily cigarette count records behavior. A quit rate asks whether someone stopped. A medicine can change one without changing the others, so a headline about fewer urges doesn't answer whether it helps people quit.

As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, a semaglutide trial published May 26 in JAMA Network Open provides a direct test. Researchers randomly assigned 24 adults to semaglutide or placebo, an inactive comparison treatment, for nine weeks. Participants weren't trying to quit.

Cravings fell more with semaglutide, but daily cigarette use did not significantly differ. The planned main tests measured delaying a cigarette and smoking in the lab; neither showed a clear benefit. A supplementary analysis found fewer cigarettes smoked in the lab. That mixed result, from a small study, supports further investigation rather than a treatment recommendation.

Where the earlier cigarette finding came from

The Hendershot trial in JAMA Psychiatry, 2025, enrolled 48 adults with alcohol use disorder, meaning drinking that causes problems and is difficult to control. Only 13 participants smoked: six received semaglutide and seven received placebo.

Over nine weeks, daily cigarette use fell more in the semaglutide group. Smoking was a secondary outcome, an additional measure beyond the study's main question. Thirteen people are too few to establish a reliable quit rate or predict what happens in other smokers.

The alcohol findings have their own discussion in semaglutide and alcohol. For smoking, the important limit is the population: these were people with alcohol problems, not a group recruited to quit cigarettes.

What the large health-record study can tell us

A Wang study in Annals of Internal Medicine, 2024, examined records for 222,942 people starting diabetes medicines, including 5,967 starting semaglutide. Participants had type 2 diabetes and tobacco use disorder, the diagnosis used for problematic tobacco use.

During 12 months, semaglutide use was associated with fewer tobacco-related medical visits than the comparison medicines. The association was strongest against insulin and smaller against other GLP-1 medicines. Researchers also found fewer prescriptions for quitting medicines and less recorded cessation counseling.

This was observational: researchers compared existing records instead of assigning treatment by chance. They lacked complete information on current smoking and whether people consistently used their medicines. Differences in patients or recordkeeping could explain part of the pattern.

Fewer tobacco-related visits aren't the same as fewer cigarettes. Fewer quitting prescriptions aren't proof that someone no longer needed help. The study identifies a question worth testing; it doesn't measure a semaglutide quit rate.

Did exenatide or dulaglutide help people quit?

Trials of other GLP-1 medicines have produced different results. Neither result can simply be transferred to semaglutide.

In a Yammine pilot in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 2021, 84 smokers received exenatide or placebo alongside nicotine patches and brief counseling. After six weeks, about 46 in 100 exenatide participants versus 27 in 100 placebo participants met the study's seven-day smoke-free measure. The estimate was uncertain, and the study was small and short.

A Lengsfeld trial in EClinicalMedicine, 2023, assigned 255 smokers to dulaglutide or placebo. Both groups received counseling and varenicline, a prescription quitting medicine. At 12 weeks, 63% versus 65% were smoke-free. Dulaglutide didn't improve quitting rates, although weight change differed between groups.

As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, a review published July 26 in Tobacco Induced Diseases pooled those two trials. It found no significant improvement in quitting and rated the evidence very uncertain. Its search ended in November 2025, so it doesn't include the May 2026 semaglutide trial.

What ongoing semaglutide smoking trials are testing

As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, ClinicalTrials.gov lists two relevant semaglutide studies as recruiting, with no results posted.

NCT06173778, updated September 21, 2026, plans to enroll 197 smokers with overweight or obesity. Both groups receive nicotine patches and counseling. Its main measure is weight change through week 28, so a future headline about weight won't automatically answer the quitting question.

NCT07059377, updated September 8, 2026, plans to enroll 100 people with diabetes. It compares semaglutide plus nicotine replacement with nicotine replacement alone. The main question is whether a larger trial is feasible; smoking status at six months is an additional measure.

The related medicine tirzepatide is also being investigated. NCT07602699, updated July 17, 2026, lists recruiting status and a planned 300 participants, with no results posted. Unlike a craving-only study, it measures smoke-free status confirmed by biological testing. Registration describes an experiment, not evidence that tirzepatide helps people quit.

Quitting help and the prescription conversation

Established quitting support is already available. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendation supports counseling and cessation medicines for nonpregnant adults. Options include nicotine replacement, such as patches, gum or lozenges, plus varenicline and sustained-release bupropion. A clinician considers which approach fits the person's history.

For someone already using semaglutide, that review includes the quitting medicines and any change in eating or stomach symptoms. Our semaglutide drug-interaction guide explains why the complete medication list matters.

As of October 1, 2026, the day this article was written, the Wegovy label marked “Revised: 06/2026” does not list smoking cessation as an indication, a labeled treatment use.

Through Promise, semaglutide is dispensed as a compounded medication, which is different from an FDA-approved product: the formulation offered here is not FDA-approved. FDA explains the compounded-product distinction. A licensed provider may still prescribe a compounded formulation; that decision is between the patient and the doctor.

At Promise, a licensed provider reviews every request and not everyone qualifies. A weight-management prescription and a smoking-cessation plan address separate goals; early craving research doesn't turn one into the other.