Research

Hormonal

Semaglutide increases the risk of adverse events, serious adverse events, and discontinuation due to adverse events compared to placebo, primarily driven by gastrointestinal reactions (nausea, diarrhea).

Be aware that semaglutide increases the risk of gastrointestinal side effects like nausea and diarrhea, which can lead to stopping the medication. These side effects are usually temporary and mild to moderate. The risk of discontinuation is higher than with a placebo, so monitoring and managing these symptoms is important for long-term success.

WeakQualifiesVERY_HIGH confidence
semaglutide increased the incidences of AEs, SAEs, and DAEs compared with placebo, especially DAEs, with statistically significant differences (AEs, RR: 1.10; 95% CI: 1.05 to 1.16; p ˂ 0.00001; SAEs, RR: 1.34; 95% CI: 1.10 to 1.65; p ˂ 0.00001; DAEs, RR: 2.29; 95% CI: 1.74 to 3.01; p ˂ 0.00001)... the incidences of nausea and diarrhea were significantly higher in semaglutide than that in placebo
Xueqin Gao et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology · 2022

Why this rating

Meta-analysis of 8 RCTs.

Source

Efficacy and safety of semaglutide on weight loss in obese or overweight patients without diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Xueqin Gao et al. · Frontiers in Pharmacology · 2022

DOI 10.3389/fphar.2022.935823

Meta-analysis · 8 studiesCited 78×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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