Another day, another study linking Ozempic to major health benefits.
Published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, the study found that patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who were given a GLP-1 drug were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related issues.
In fact, they found it to work even better than the current most-effective drug for treating alcoholism on the market.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, over 28 million adults in the U.S. suffer from AUD.
Only three medications are currently approved for the treatment of AUD, and expert opinion maintains these options are not suitable for all patients, and relapse is commonplace.
“I see so many patients who do not have good outcomes on the medications we have and who are desperate for help with their addiction,” said study leader Dr. Markku Lähteenvuo said. “We really do need more tools in the toolbox.”
Currently, the anti-addiction drug naltrexone is the most effective medicine approved for AUD, lowering the risk of hospitalization by 14%.
GLP-1 drugs treat diabetes and stimulate weight loss by mimicking he naturally occurring hormone GLP-1, which signals the body that it is full.
But the study found that semaglutide (which is sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy) and liraglutide (which is sold under the brand named Victoza) lowered the hospitalization risk by 22% and 21%, respectively.
Lähteenvuo and his team analyzed the medical records of 228,000 people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder from 2006 to 2023. All of these patients also had obesity or Type 2 diabetes.
Over the course of the study, 60% of participants were hospitalized for alcohol use, but alcohol-related hospitalizations were dramatically lower among people who took a GLP-1 drug.
Roughly 75,000 study participants were prescribed a medication to treat AUD. Within this subset, the team documented 30,000 hospitalizations.
Of the roughly 4,300 people prescribed semaglutide, there were 220 reports of hospitalization for AUD. Other participants who took older GLP-1 drugs, including liraglutide and dulaglutide, also reported fewer hospitalizations.
Lähteenvuo said the relationship between GLP-1 drugs and alcohol consumption may be relative to the sugar content in booze, as GLP-1 drugs make sugary beverages less appealing.
Along with food, Ozempic users have reported fewer cravings for alcohol, drugs, and nicotine.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved Ozempic in 2017 to treat Type 2 diabetes in adults and Wegovy in 2021 for adult weight loss. Since its approval, researchers have been testing Ozempic’s effect on other chronic diseases, such as colorectal cancer, osteoarthritis, and brain disorders.
Research published earlier this year established that GLP-1 drugs may be able to treat alcohol and opioid addiction by influencing dopamine levels in the brain. These types of medications interact with the mesolimbic system — a major reward center in the brain that overlaps with the brain processes that govern addictive behaviors.
According to the World Health Organization, alcohol abuse is accountable for 5.1% of the global burden of disease.
More than 5% of all cancer cases are caused by drinking alcohol, according to the Cancer Progress Report 2024 from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR).
Lähteenvuo notes that while more research is called for, drugs like Ozempic may offer hope to those burdened by addiction, “Our study suggests that besides obesity and diabetes, GLP-1-agonists may also help in the treatment of alcohol and substance use disorders; however, these findings need to be further validated in randomized controlled trials.”
