Ozempic’s case as an addiction treatment continues to improve

The sky remains the limit for semaglutide, the active ingredient in the popular drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. The newly published research is the latest to suggest that semaglutide and other GLP-1 drugs can help treat people’s addiction to both opioids and alcohol.

GLP-1 drugs have been a valuable treatment for type 2 diabetes for nearly twenty years. More recently, they have changed the obesity treatment landscape substantially, with clinical trials showing that newer drugs like semaglutide are much more effective at helping people lose weight than diet and exercise alone. Researchers have also begun to study whether GLP-1 can reduce people’s cravings for potentially harmful substances such as opioids or alcohol. So far, the evidence for this effect comes largely from animal studies, people’s personal anecdotes, and small studies of GLP-1 users. This new research, published Wednesday in the journal addictiontakes a broader view of the potential benefits of GLP-1 for substance use disorders.

Researchers analyzed the medical records of more than half a million people with a history of opioid use disorder (OUD) and more than 800,000 people with a history of alcohol use disorder (AUD). They tracked what happened to people with these disorders who were prescribed a GLP-1 drug or not, for up to two years. Overall, the researchers found a clear association between GLP-1 use and reduced symptoms of any substance use disorder.

Compared to non-GLP-1 users, people with OUD who take GLP-1 for other conditions were 40% less likely to experience an opioid overdose episode, for example. Similarly, people with AUD who took GLP-1 were 50% less likely to experience an episode of alcohol intoxication. This reduction in associated risk was similar among different groups of patients who are commonly prescribed GLP-1, such as people with type 2 diabetes or people with obesity.

Other recent studies have looked at people’s medical records and found a similar positive pattern between GLP-1 use and reduced drug problems. But this study appears to be one of the largest of its kind to date, with data collected from more than 130 different health systems. The authors also explicitly aimed to quantify the potential benefits of these drugs in reducing people’s drug-related symptoms. And given their results, they argue that these drugs may not only be game-changers for obesity, but also for treating substance use disorders.

“The findings of this study have the potential to suggest significant implications for both clinical practice and public health policy in the coming years,” they wrote. “Future research should focus on prospective clinical trials to validate these findings, explore the underlying mechanisms, and determine the long-term efficacy and safety of GIP/GLP-1 RA medications in diverse populations.”

Because it is important to accumulate more evidence for any hypothesis, these types of studies alone cannot definitively demonstrate that GLP-1 drugs should yet be added to the list of medications for use disorder. substances There are ongoing clinical trials testing semaglutide for alcoholism, and more are likely to follow for opioid use disorder as well. Should these trials validate the findings so far, GLP-1s could certainly be an important option for people struggling with drug use, especially since many are unlikely to be treated with existing medications.