Cuts weight loss, diabetes drug semaglutide alcohol craving?

Blockbuster -medicinal remedy, better known as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for obesity, could also help people cut down on their alcohol intake, according to new research led by a USC investigator.

The results that were published in Jama Psychiatryshowed that weekly injections of semaglutide – compared to placebo injections – reduced alcohol cravings, drinking quantity and the frequency of heavy drinking days in adults with symptoms of alcohol disorder disorder.

The discovery can help tackle an important treatment gap: an estimated 178,000 US deaths a year can be attributed to alcohol associated with liver disease, heart -vessel disease and is a known cause of cancer, as recently noted by US Surgeon General. Nearly a third of American adults have met the criteria for drinking at some point in their lives, yet seeking or receiving very few treatment.

The study confirms a common observation from many patients and doctors as Ozempic and medications as it exploded in popularity: People begin weekly injections of semaglutide for obesity or diabetes – and suddenly lose their desire for alcohol.

This is the first randomized, placebo -controlled clinical trial of semaglutide designed to study the phenomenon, said Christian Hendershot, first author of the study and director of clinical research at the USC Institute for Addiction Science.

The medications currently approved for the treatment of alcohol disorder disorder are not widely used. The popularity of Semaglutide and other GLP-1 receptoragonists increase the chances of broad adoption of these treatments for alcohol disorder if approved for this indication, said Hendershot, a professor of population and public health science at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

These results justify larger studies of GLP-1 receptoragonists for alcohol disorder disorder, added Hendershot.

The experiment

For the trial, scientists recruited 48 adults with Alcohol disorder disorder that did not actively seek treatment. Alcohol disorder disorder is defined by a number of possible symptoms, including inability to stop or control one’s drinks despite negative consequences.

Participants had an earlier month of drinking history with more than seven (for women) or more than 14 (for men) standard drinks in one week as well as two or more heavy drinking episodes (four or more drinks for women and five or more for men).

One week before the first injection, researchers invited participants to drink their preferred alcoholic beverage over a two-hour period in a comfortable laboratory setting with instructions to delay drink if they wanted it. Researchers documented the amount of alcohol consumed.

Participants were then randomly assigned to receive weekly injections with low dose of Ozempic or a placebo for nine weeks, during which time their weekly drinking patterns were also measured. Afterwards, participants and researchers returned to the drinking lab to repeat the process and see what changed.

What changed?

Results, measured by grams of alcohol consumption and breathing alcohol concentration, indicated that semaglutid injections reduced weekly alcohol cravings, reduced average drinks on drinking days and led to greater reductions in heavy drinking days compared to placebo. An important finding was that the size of Semaglutide’s effects on several drinking results seemed greater than is often seen with existing medicine to reduce alcohol cravings, although semaglutide was only administered in the lowest clinical doses.

Medical effects also seemed stronger with rising doses. At the second month of treatment, in the semaglutid group, they had reduced the quantification of alcohol, which was consumed on drinking days with an average of almost 30% compared to an average reduction of approx. 2% in the placebo group. Nearly 40% of people in the Semaglutide group also reported no heavy drinking days in the second month of treatment compared to 20% in the placebo group.

Among a small subgroup of participants who smoked cigarettes at baseline, those treated with semaglutide had significantly larger reductions in average cigarettes per day. Day compared to those in the placebo group, which suggests that the Semaglutid could possibly reduce both alcohol and nicotine use.

“This data suggests the potential of semaglutide and similar drugs to fulfill an unmet need to treat alcohol disorder disorder,” said senior author Klara Klein of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. “Larger and longer studies in wider populations are necessary to fully understand the safety and effectiveness of people with alcohol disorder disorder, but these original findings are promising.”

About this study: In addition to Hendershot and Klein, other writers of the study are Michael Bremmer, Michael Paladino, Georgios Kostrantinis, Thomas Gilmore, Neil Sullivan, Amanda Tow and Robyn Jordan, all University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Sarah S. Dermody of Toronto Metropolitan University; Mark Prince of Keck School of Medicine; Sherry A. McKee from Yale University School of Medicine; Paul J. Fletcher of the University of Toronto; and Eric D. Claus of Pennsylvania State University.

This research was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Grant R21AAA026931.