Conclusion: Dexmedetomidine is effective in the prevention of postoperative delirium. This finding remains after exclusion of studies at high risk of bias. Corticosteroids, melatonin receptor agonists, parecoxib, intranasal insulin, and olanzapine have potential benefit, although evidence is of moderate to very low quality. Evidence synthesis in this area is complicated by inadequate trial registration practices and incomplete adoption of core outcome sets.
Intranasal Insulin side effects
Across 26 first-hand reports, people mentioned a side effect 11 times (about 42 per 100 reports). The most common: drowsiness, dizziness, brain fog. User reports show what people notice — they can't tell you whether Intranasal Insulin is safe for you.
Reported side effects
drowsiness3
dizziness3
brain fog2
cognitive impairment1
nosebleed1
runny nose1
In their own words
“INI reduced my anxiety (its only benefit). INI made me kind of dumber like I could not think clearly.”
“INI seems to give me more mental energy to work with, especially at the end of the day. I've taken it on an Adderall comedown and it brought it back up... although there is a slight cloudiness”
“The most dramatic effect for me is that it instantly clears up my morning brain fog...I just take my INI and poof, I'm 'on.'”
“brainfog, drowsiness, dizzy. I tried from 10iu to 40iu”
Is Intranasal Insulin safe? What the research covers
AResearch: Strong23 meta-analyses · 91 randomized trials on PubMed
BMJ · 2026
Effectiveness of drug interventions to prevent delirium after surgery for older adults: systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomised controlled trialsJ Neurol · 2018
Intranasal insulin in Alzheimer's dementia or mild cognitive impairment: a systematic reviewConclusion: Intranasal insulin improved story recall performance of apoe4 (-) patients with AD or MCI. Other cognitive functions were not affected, but there were some positive results in functional status and daily activity. Since IN insulin is a safe intervention, future studies should be conducted with larger doses and after proper selection of patients and insulin types.