Background: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are widely prescribed for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity by regulating appetite, a function heavily influenced by taste and smell. Post-marketing surveillance data from the FDA Adverse Event (AE) Reporting System was used to evaluate the effects of GLP-1 RAs on taste and smell. Methods: We analyzed AE reports (01/01/2019–09/30/2024) on taste disorders (dysgeusia, ageusia, hypogeusia, non-specified taste disorder) and smell disorders (anosmia, hyposmia, parosmia, phantosmia) for GLP-1 RAs (semaglutide, dulaglutide, exenatide, liraglutide, lixisenatide; N=113,452) and non-GLP-1 RA drugs with known chemosensory adverse effects [i.e., metformin (non-GLP-1 RA drug for diabetes), nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid), and terbinafine (antifungal); N=257,356] using a standard disproportionality approach. Results: As expected, non-GLP-1 RA drugs exhibited high (>2.0) Reporting Odds Ratios (ROR) for one or more chemosensory AEs, with the largest effects for taste dysfunction. Examples include metformin for parosmia (ROR=4.8; 95% CI 3.8-6.0), nirmatrelvir for dysgeusia (ROR=83.0; 95% CI 80.3-85.7), and terbinafine for ageusia (ROR=39.0; 95% CI 32.8-46.3). Although GLP-1 RAs overall demonstrated high associations among non-specified taste disorders (ROR=2.1; 95% CI 1.9-2.3) and parosmia (ROR=2.5; 95% CI 2.0-3.1), these effects are lower than observed for the non-GLP-1 RA drugs. Among GLP-1 RAs, semaglutide demonstrates the strongest associations, with an ROR=3.6 [95% CI 3.2-4.1] for taste disorder and ROR=4.4 [95% CI 3.3-5.8] for parosmia. Conclusion: GLP-1 RAs show significant associations with taste and smell disorders, the nature of which requires further study.
Ryann Kolb1, Emmanuel Nartey2, Alicia Lozano2, Alexandra Hanlon2, Vicente Ramirez1, Valentina Parma1
1Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, United States
2Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Virginia Tech, Roanoke, VA, United States
