Legacy neuropsychiatric benefit after semaglutide is linked to maximum achieved dose and independent of the maximum weight lost
Abstract
Abstract GLP-1 receptor agonists have reshaped obesity therapeutics, but their impact on neuropsychiatric outcomes remains poorly characterized. From 29 million patients in a large federated data platform across the USA, including 489,785 semaglutide treated patients, we conducted an observational study integrating longitudinal neuropsychiatric outcomes. From this population, we assembled a cohort of 63,215 patients with baseline neuropsychiatric conditions before treatment initiation and evaluated 24 incident neuropsychiatric outcomes. In propensity-matched comparator analyses, during the 2 year time-period from treatment initiation, semaglutide was associated with broadly lower neuropsychiatric event risk than metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, and DPP-4 inhibitors. Within the semaglutide-treated cohort, higher attained dose during the first two years after the first prescription (“pre-landmark period”) was associated with significantly lower incidence during the following two years (“post-landmark period”) of diagnostic codes associated with substance-related disorders (P
Fields of Study & Subjects
Diabetes Treatment and Management
Bariatric Surgery and Outcomes
Pharmacology and Obesity Treatment
Publication details
- Journal / source
- medRxiv
- Publisher
- openRxiv
- Publication date
- 23 April 2026
- Document type
- Preprint