A study this week suggests that semaglutide — found in the popular obesity drug Wegovi — can also help people struggling with alcohol use disorders. In a small sample of cases, researchers found evidence that people who took semaglutide for weight loss experienced significant reductions in alcohol dependence symptoms. The team and other scientists have begun clinical trials to further investigate this link.
Semaglutide is a synthetic, long-acting version of glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1), a hormone that helps regulate insulin production and appetite, among other things. Developed by Novo Nordisk, it was first approved in 2017 under the brand name Ozempic for the management of type 2 diabetes, and was later approved in 2021 as the high-dose Wegovy for obesity. New GLP-1s like semaglutide and similar drugs have been proven Very effective By helping people lose weight from diet and exercise alone or past obesity medications (in Wegovy clinical trials, people lost about 15% of their starting weight).
While the main cells that produce and respond to GLP-1 are found in the gut, there are also cells that respond to GLP-1 in the brain. These drugs work to suppress appetite not only by affecting the body’s digestive tract, but also by slowing down digestion. By communication With these brain cells too. This has led to speculation that these drugs may reduce people’s appetites in addition to food.
Studies have shown that semaglutide can reduce alcohol and drug addiction in laboratory animals. And because the popularity of these drugs is rapidly increasing, there have been some reports of people drinking or gambling more often after starting to take semaglutide. But this new study, Published Monday’s Journal of Clinical Psychiatry appears to be one of the first to formally document some of these reports.
The authors followed six subjects who had been prescribed semaglutide for weight loss but had previously been diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder, defined as an inability to control their drinking despite harmful consequences to themselves or others. All patients seemed to experience a clear reduction in alcohol-related symptoms, even those who did not lose much weight while taking semaglutide.
“This case series is consistent with preclinical data and suggests that GLP-1RAs have strong therapeutic potential. [alcohol use disorder]” wrote the authors of the study.
The researchers are from the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine and the Oklahoma State University Health Sciences Center. Some already have He started He is also conducting his own, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, to conduct a randomized clinical trial of semaglutide to recruit patients with alcoholism. Sister test.
Novo Nordisk had to apply for regulatory approval for any new semaglutide indication, including for alcohol use disorder. And current and future trials, even with positive data, are uncertain whether the drug will officially be a cure for the disease. But there are only three drugs currently formally approved for alcohol use disorder, all of which seem to be available. Moderate effectiveness in a better way. Therefore, even showing that semaglutide and other GLP-1s can be effective is still a valuable option for these patients if it is off-label.
“This research is a major step forward in understanding the potential therapeutic applications of semaglutide in the field of addiction treatment,” said lead author Jesse Richards, director of obesity medicine and assistant professor of medicine at OU-TU’s School of Community Medicine. By A press release from the university.