Recent government-sponsored research suggests that medications designed for obesity treatment might also assist individuals in reducing their alcohol consumption.
The study involved a small sample size of 48 adults and spanned just over two months, so it is not definitive. Experts caution that the safety of these medications for individuals without weight loss needs is still uncertain. However, the findings align with previous animal studies and anecdotal evidence indicating that drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy may help manage cravings for not just food but also alcohol and tobacco. Investigations are underway to understand the impact of these medications on smokers and individuals struggling with opioid and cocaine addictions.
Dr. Klara Klein, a co-author from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, highlighted the intriguing nature of the preliminary data. “We hear frequently from patients that their desire to drink significantly lessens or even completely disappears after starting these medications,” she stated. The medications in question are known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which function by imitating gut and brain hormones that help regulate appetite and satiety. The specific focus of the current study was on semaglutide, the active ingredient in both Ozempic and Wegovy.
The research findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry and were backed by funding from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, a component of the National Institutes of Health. Presently, three medications are already approved for treating alcohol use disorder. Until more comprehensive studies can validate these findings, individuals are advised to consult their healthcare providers about existing treatment options, as noted by lead author Christian Hendershot, an addiction specialist at the University of Southern California.
For this study, participants experiencing symptoms of alcohol use disorder—such as trouble controlling their alcohol intake—were recruited, but they were not actively seeking treatment. Initially, each participant visited a lab where they could drink their preferred alcoholic beverages freely for two hours. Following this, participants were randomly assigned to receive either weekly injections of semaglutide or placebo injections.
Throughout the nine-week study, participants monitored their drinking behaviors and cravings for alcohol, with a follow-up lab session repeating the initial drinking test at the study’s conclusion. By the end, nearly 40% of participants receiving semaglutide reported no days of heavy drinking, compared to only 20% within the placebo group. Additionally, those on semaglutide consumed, on average, about half the amount of alcohol compared to those receiving the placebo during the final lab test.
All study participants were categorized as overweight, and Klein remarked on the uncertainty regarding the drugs’ safety for individuals at a normal weight. Interestingly, smokers in the semaglutide group also showed a decline in cigarette consumption, a finding highlighted by Luba Yammine from UTHealth Houston, who is investigating GLP-1 drugs for smoking cessation. Although promising, Yammine emphasized the need for further data in this area.
Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, another NIH researcher leading an ongoing 20-week trial of semaglutide for alcohol use disorder in Baltimore, remarked that these findings contribute crucial insights into a new class of medications that might play a role in treating certain addictions. “It is essential to remember that further large-scale randomized clinical trials are necessary to validate these results,” Leggio stated.
