Ozempic-like drugs may treat alcohol addiction, study finds

Weight-loss drugs that work like Ozempic can help users shed pounds. Now, a new study suggests the medications could also help people with alcohol use disorder.

The research, published Nov. 13 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, adds to a growing body of work hinting these drugs could help people manage drug and alcohol addiction.

In the study, researchers used data from more than 227,000 people in Sweden's patient data registry, a national database of health records. The study's subjects were diagnosed with alcohol use disorder between 2006 and 2021. Among these, 4,321 people used semaglutide, the drug branded under the names Ozempic and Wegovy, and 2,509 people used liraglutide, another drug in the same class. Broadly, these drugs are called GLP-1 agonists because they mimic a hormone called GLP-1 that helps regulate appetite and hunger.

The analysis found that the people using the drugs were less likely to be hospitalized for problems linked to alcohol use disorder, such as intoxication and withdrawal symptoms like delirium, than the patients who weren't using the drugs. Semaglutide use was associated with a 36% lower risk and liraglutide with a 28% lower risk.

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Furthermore, the risk of hospitalization due to any substance use disorder was 32% lower in those taking semaglutide, while liraglutide was associated with a 22% lower risk.

The researchers also looked at naltrexone, a drug approved to treat opioid and alcohol use disorder. They found it was associated with a 14% reduction in the risk of hospitalization for issues related to alcohol and substance use.

"One of the most striking findings was that GLP-1 medications had a lower risk than alcohol-use disorder medications we use," study co-author Markku Lähteenvuo, a docent of forensic psychiatry at the University of Eastern Finland and Niuvanniemi Hospital, told Live Science.

That said, Lähteenvuo emphasized that this kind of study can't conclusively show that the drug directly treated a person's addiction. "These are associations, and we need to verify them in clinical trials," he said.

Still, he added, "the effect sizes were pretty big, so we are hopeful that these results are real."

Lorenzo Leggio, clinical director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program in Baltimore, said the work is "an interesting study that adds to the growing evidence" that GLP-1 agonists could help treat alcohol use disorder and addiction in general."It's important to note that alcohol use disorder and addictions are leading causes of hospitalizations, morbidity, and mortality," Leggio, who was not involved in the study, told Live Science in an email. "This study investigated important outcomes (hospitalizations) that are very relevant from a clinical and public health standpoint — another important strength of the study."

A growing body of work

Lähteenvuo and his colleagues aren't the first to spot the link between GLP-1 drugs and addiction.

"A few years ago, there was quite a buzz about these medications, and clinicians noticed their patients seemed to be reducing their alcohol intake," he said. "It was kind of a chance finding."

Since then, early research in the lab and some real-world studies have supported this observation. Studies on mice and rats found that semaglutide reduced the rodents' binge drinking episodes and dependence on alcohol, after they'd been provided with alcohol for some time. In addition, some observational studies in humans — including one published Wednesday (Nov. 26) in the journal JAMA Network Open — have found that GLP-1 agonists were linked to lower alcohol use in people with alcohol addiction.

And it's not just alcohol — previous studies found a link between Ozempic-like drugs and a lower risk of opioid overdose and cannabis-use disorder relapse.

These recent findings "offer the first real hope for the treatment of substance use disorder in decades," Patricia "Sue" Grigson, chair of the Department of Neural and Behavioral sciences at Penn State College of Medicine, told Live Science in an email.

Still, Grigson and Leggio noted that clinical trials are needed to show that the drugs are actually driving this change in addictive behaviors. The safety of using the drugs in this context also needs to be confirmed, Grigson added.

"These clinical trials are being conducted, and some have been completed," Grigson said. The emerging data is promising, but "we must await completion of further work to draw firm conclusions," she added.

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