June 13, 2023 – Might the category of recent weight reduction medication together with semaglutide – accredited as Ozempic to deal with sort 2 diabetes and Wegovy to deal with weight problems – additionally curb addictions and compulsive behaviors?
As demand for semaglutide for weight reduction grew after Wegovy was accredited by the FDA in June 2021, private accounts of sudden added advantages additionally started to floor for the category of medicines referred to as GLP-1s, which mimic a pure hormone referred to as glucagon-like peptide-1 that helps an individual really feel full.
Some sufferers taking these medication for sort 2 diabetes or weight reduction additionally misplaced curiosity in addictive and compulsive behaviors corresponding to ingesting alcohol, smoking, purchasing, nail biting, and pores and skin selecting, as reported in articles in The New York Timesand The Atlantic, amongst others. For now, the studies are merely anecdotal, so that they’re subjective and never but clinically verified. However there’s additionally some early analysis to assist these observations.
Latest and Upcoming Research
“I hope that GLP-1 analogs sooner or later can be utilized towards [alcohol use disorder], however earlier than that may occur, a number of GLP-1 trials [are needed to] show an impact on alcohol consumption,” stated Anders Fink-Jensen, MD, the senior creator of a latest randomized controlled trial of 127 sufferers with alcohol use dysfunction, or AUD.
His examine concerned sufferers receiving 26 weeks of the first-generation GLP-1 agonist exenatide accredited for sort 2 diabetes, however this didn’t scale back the variety of heavy ingesting days, in comparison with a placebo.
However in analyses accomplished after the examine ended, heavy ingesting days and complete alcohol consumption have been considerably diminished within the subgroup of sufferers with AUD and weight problems as decided by a physique mass index, or BMI, over 30.
The members have been additionally proven photos of alcohol or impartial topics whereas they’d practical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Those that had acquired exenatide vs. a placebo had considerably much less activation of their brains’ reward facilities when proven the photographs of alcohol.
This reveals that “one thing is going on within the mind and activation of the reward heart is hampered by the GLP-1 compound,” stated Fink-Jensen, a medical psychologist on the Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen in Denmark.
“If sufferers with AUD already fulfill the factors for semaglutide (or different GLP-1 analogs) by having sort 2 diabetes and/or a BMI over 30, they will in fact use the compound proper now,” he stated.
His staff can also be starting a examine, in sufferers with AUD and a BMI of 30 or above, to research the results of semaglutide as much as 2.4 milligrams weekly on alcohol consumption. That is the utmost dose of semaglutide accredited for weight problems within the U.S.
“Based mostly on the efficiency of exenatide and semaglutide,” Fink-Jensen stated, “we count on that semaglutide will trigger a stronger discount in alcohol consumption” than exenatide.
Animal research have additionally proven that GLP-1 agonists suppress alcohol-induced reward, alcohol consumption, motivation to devour alcohol, alcohol looking for, and relapse ingesting of alcohol, in keeping with researcher Elisabet Jerlhag Holm, PhD.
These brokers additionally suppress the reward, consumption, and motivation to devour different addictive medication like cocaine, amphetamine, nicotine, and a few opioids, stated Jerlhag Holm, a professor within the Division of Pharmacology on the College of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Her group lately published results of a examine accomplished in rats that gives proof to assist clarify the anecdotal studies from sufferers with weight problems handled with semaglutide who claimed in addition they diminished their alcohol consumption. Within the examine, semaglutide each diminished alcohol consumption (and relapse-like ingesting) and decreased physique weight of rats of each sexes.
“Future analysis ought to discover the potential of semaglutide reducing alcohol consumption in sufferers with AUD, significantly those that are obese,” Jerlhag Holm stated.
“AUD is a … dysfunction [involving various components], and one treatment is most certainly not useful for all AUD sufferers,” she stated, “and due to this fact an arsenal of various drugs is useful when treating AUD sufferers.”
Janice J. Hwang, MD, MHS, echoed these ideas.
“Anecdotally, there are a variety of studies from sufferers (and within the information) that this class of treatment impacts cravings and will impression addictive behaviors,” she stated.
Nonetheless, “I feel it’s a lot too early to inform” whether or not these medication is perhaps accredited for treating sufferers for addictions with out extra strong medical trial knowledge, stated Hwang, an affiliate professor of drugs and chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In the meantime, one other analysis group on the College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, led by psychiatrist Christian Hendershot, PhD, is conducting a clinical trial in 48 individuals with AUD who’re additionally people who smoke.
They intention to find out if sufferers who obtain semaglutide pictures at more and more increased doses over 9 weeks will drink much less alcohol and smoke lower than those that obtain a placebo shot. Outcomes are anticipated in October.
