GLP-1 Research Lists: The Studies That Actually Moved Practice
Ten peer-reviewed studies to a list, ordered by how much clinical weight each one carries. Every entry gets its PMID, its ClinicalTrials.gov link where one exists, and a short note from us on why it earned the place.
Looking for full-length deep-dives instead? Browse our long-form research articles.
The 10 Semaglutide Weight-Loss Trials That Matter (2026)
10 ranked papers · semaglutide · wegovy · ozempic
Semaglutide has been tested more thoroughly for weight than any drug before it, and the ten trials below are the ones that changed something: the dose we use, the label it carries, what happens when you stop, and whether it does anything beyond the scale. Each entry gives the PMID, the design, and the figure that mattered.
The 10 Tirzepatide Trials That Built the Case (2026)
10 ranked papers · tirzepatide · zepbound · mounjaro
Tirzepatide is the only dual GIP and GLP-1 agonist with a finished phase 3 obesity program, and the ten trials below are why it currently sits at the top of the evidence. They cover the pivotal result, what happens in diabetes, what happens when you stop, the direct comparison against semaglutide, and two indications — sleep apnea and heart failure — that have nothing to do with the scale.
The 10 Cardiovascular Outcome Trials Behind the GLP-1 Class (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · cardiovascular · MACE
The cardiovascular evidence for this class is now broad enough to compare with statins: more than 80,000 patients across ten major trials. These are the ones that changed a label or a guideline — plus ELIXA, which found no benefit at all and remains the most useful negative result in the field.
The 10 Kidney Trials Behind the GLP-1 Class (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · kidney · CKD
For most of the last decade the kidney case for these drugs was assembled from secondary endpoints inside trials designed to measure something else. FLOW finally tested it directly in 2024 and produced the first kidney label in the class. These are that trial and the nine analyses that made anyone think it was worth running.
The 10 Liver Trials: What GLP-1s Do to MASH (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · MASH · MASLD
Liver disease has become one of the most active areas for these drugs, and the arc runs from a small biopsy trial in 2016 to a phase 3 result likely to change the standard of care. Included deliberately: the trial in cirrhosis that missed its endpoint, because knowing where a drug stops working is more useful than another positive result.
Every Published Retatrutide Trial (2026): the 24.2% Drug
10 ranked papers · retatrutide · GLP-1 · GIP
Retatrutide is the drug people ask about most and can legitimately get least, because every result below is phase 2 or earlier. The headline is real — 24.2% at 48 weeks, beating tirzepatide's ceiling — and so is the caveat: the phase 3 program is still running and nothing from it has been published. These ten papers are the entire evidence base.
GLP-1s and Mental Health: What 10 Studies Actually Found (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · mental health · depression
This is the area where the gap between what a study can show and what a headline says is widest. Only two of the ten below are randomized. The other eight are cohorts and pharmacovigilance databases, which are good at detecting a signal and poor at telling you whether the drug caused it. Each entry says which kind it is, because that determines how much weight it carries.
Compounded GLP-1 Research: the Trial That Does Not Exist (2026)
10 ranked papers · compounded · semaglutide · tirzepatide
The most important fact about compounded GLP-1 research is an absence: no published randomized trial has compared a compounded product against the brand it copies, for equivalence, efficacy or safety. What exists instead is documentation of impurities, tenfold dosing errors, adverse-event signals and market conduct. That is a different kind of evidence, and it answers a different question.
GLP-1s and Sleep Apnea: the 9 Trials Behind the First Ever Approval
9 ranked papers · GLP-1 · OSA · sleep apnea
Sleep apnea had no drug treatment at all until December 2024. These nine studies are how that changed: the pivotal trial, the liraglutide trial eight years earlier that showed it was possible, the lifestyle trials that established the weight-to-severity relationship, and the MRI study explaining why fat in the tongue matters more than fat overall.
Will You Lose Muscle on a GLP-1? The 10 Papers (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · muscle · lean mass
This is the most-asked question about these drugs and one of the thinnest evidence bases on this site. Almost nothing here was designed to answer it: the numbers come from DEXA substudies bolted onto trials built to measure weight. The consistent finding is that roughly a quarter to a third of lost weight is lean mass, which is close to what dieting produces — and that exercise changes the ratio.
GLP-1s and Bone: 10 Studies on a Risk Nobody Has Measured Properly
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · bone · BMD
Losing weight quickly costs bone density no matter how it is done. Whether these drugs add anything on top of that is unsettled — one randomized trial says they protect bone, another says the drug alone loses more density than exercise alone. The fracture meta-analyses are reassuring and underpowered, and no trial has followed a non-diabetic obesity population long enough to matter.
GLP-1s for Teenagers: the 10 Trials Behind the Approvals (2026)
10 ranked papers · adolescent · pediatric · STEP-TEENS
Adolescent obesity had almost nothing approved for it a decade ago. Three trials changed that — STEP TEENS, SCALE Teens and ELLIPSE — and this list covers them alongside the analyses that shaped how they are prescribed and the bariatric-surgery results that were, until recently, the only real option for severe cases.
GLP-1s After 65: 10 Studies, and Not One Designed for Older Adults
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · older adults · geriatric
There is no dedicated geriatric trial of these drugs. What exists is age-stratified subgroups from STEP-HFpEF, SUSTAIN 6, PIONEER 6 and SELECT — which consistently show the drugs work as well after 75 as before 65 — and a body of review literature arguing that the muscle question changes character in patients who were already close to frailty.
GLP-1s, PCOS and the "Ozempic Baby": 10 Studies (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · PCOS · fertility
Unplanned pregnancies in women who believed they could not conceive have made these drugs a common off-label PCOS therapy. The evidence is real but thin: one 60-woman ovulation trial from 2008, one 28-woman IVF trial, a series of small pilots from a single research group, and meta-analyses pooling all of it. Nothing here is FDA-approved for PCOS.
How Long Have These Drugs Actually Been Studied? 10 Papers (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · long-term safety · pharmacovigilance
Patients ask about ten years. The randomized evidence runs two to five. This list covers the longest trials in the class — STEP-5 at two years, SELECT at 3.3, LEADER at 3.8, REWIND at 5.4 — plus the withdrawal extensions and the large database studies probing rare events no trial was ever big enough to catch.
GLP-1s and Dementia: 10 Studies, and the Trial That Settles It Is Not Out Yet
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · dementia · Alzheimer
This is a field waiting on a result. Almost everything below is observational — large, consistent, and structurally unable to prove cause. The one randomized Alzheimer's trial published so far missed what it set out to measure and moved a secondary outcome. Two phase 3 trials in nearly 3,800 patients read out in late 2026 and will decide the question.
Do GLP-1s Reduce Drinking? 10 Studies on the Addiction Question
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · addiction · alcohol
Patients started reporting they wanted to drink less, and the research followed. The field now has exactly two randomized trials — 48 people and 127 people — plus a set of large observational studies that consistently point the same direction. Nobody serious in this field claims it is settled, including the people running it.
Are GLP-1s Worth What They Cost? 10 Economic Analyses (2026)
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · cost-effectiveness · ICER
Nobody in this literature disputes that the drugs work. What they disagree about is whether the price is defensible, and the answer flips depending on four things: which population, list price or net price, which country, and who paid for the model. This list covers the analyses that coverage decisions are actually argued from.
GLP-1s After Cancer: 10 Studies for a Population the Trials Excluded
10 ranked papers · GLP-1 · cancer survivor · breast cancer
Weight gain after cancer treatment is common, driven by chemotherapy and by years of hormone-blocking therapy, and it carries real cardiovascular consequences. No randomized trial has tested these drugs in survivors. This list is the closest the literature comes — observational cohorts, oncology society syntheses, and papers whose main contribution is naming the gap.