Blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy may help people cut down on drinkingNew research published Wednesday JAMA Psychiatry suggests.

In a Swedish study of nearly 228,000 people with alcohol use disorder, researchers found that people taking a GLP-1 drug such as semaglutide were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related problems.

More than 28 million adults in the US have alcohol addiction National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

However, only three drugs are approved to treat it.

“Current pharmacological treatments for AUD are not very good, and relapse is really common,” said Alex DiFeliceantonio, an assistant professor at Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute.

The leader of the study is Dr. D., a psychiatry researcher at Niuvanniemi Hospital in Finland. Markku Lähteenvuo said: “I see many patients who are desperate and cannot achieve good results with the drugs we have. help their addiction. “We really need more tools in the toolbox.”

GLP-1 drugs, the class of drugs that includes other popular medications such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, have shown potential for treating addiction.

A. clinical trial A study published in 2022 found that an older GLP-1 drug called exenatide reduced alcohol consumption, but only in people with both alcohol use disorder and obesity. A lot other studies examined the drinking habits of people who did not have an alcohol use disorder and were taking GLP-1 medications.

In the new study, Lähteenvuo and his team examined the medical records of 228,000 people diagnosed in Sweden. alcohol use disorder From 2006 to 2023. All study participants also had obesity or Type 2 diabetes.

Approximately 60% of participants were hospitalized for alcohol use disorder at some point during the study period.

About 75,000 people in the study used some type of medication to treat alcohol use disorder. The team documented nearly 30,000 hospitalizations among this group. (Researchers counted the total number of hospitalizations, which means each number does not necessarily represent a single person. Some people may have been hospitalized more than once.)

Alcohol-related hospitalizations were much lower among people taking GLP-1 medication.

In the study, approximately 220 hospitalizations occurred due to alcohol use disorder in approximately 4,300 people who used semaglutide, a content of Ozempic and Wegovy. Others in the study were using older GLP-1 drugs such as liraglutide and dulaglutide and also had fewer hospitalizations.

Using hospitalization to determine the effects of drugs on alcohol use disorder is an imperfect measure, but experts said it’s a good place to start.

“Alcohol withdrawal or intoxication can be the reason why someone is hospitalized, which is a pretty extreme outcome,” DiFeliceantonio said.

A study by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases found that beer drinkers generally have less healthy lifestyles than drinkers who prefer wine, liquor, or a combination of types of alcohol.

But he added that hospital data is widely available and can help researchers determine which drugs might work for different types of addiction and which clinical trials should be done first.

A growing body of research shows that GLP-1 agonists warrant closer scrutiny, especially in alcohol abuse.

“We have known for some time from animal studies that GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce alcohol intake and motivation to consume alcohol,” said Christian Hendershot, director of clinical research at the Addiction Science Institute at the University of Southern California.

He added that the fact that the new study included only people with alcohol use disorder provides better information about how effective drugs can be for people with substance abuse.

what kind of a Diabetes drug could treat addiction still a mystery.

One theory is that its effects may be related to the drug’s ability to induce feelings of fullness. This can likewise reduce cravings for drugs and alcohol. medications work on food cravingssaid Hendershot.

“They may also reduce the rewarding effects of drugs,” he said.

There are other theories as well. Lähteenvuo said this may have something to do with the sugar in alcohol. GLP-1 drugs make sugary drinks less appealing, he said.

Newer GLP-1 drugs, such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, enter the brain through different pathways. old versions reviewedDiFeliceantonio said it will be important to test both going forward.

Although the drugs are very safe for people with obesity and Type 2 diabetes, they can pose major safety risks for people who do not have obesity or Type 2 diabetes, especially because they cause weight loss, Hendershot said.

Early studies also investigated GLP-1 drugs for nicotine and opioid addiction, with mixed results. So far, the clearest results have come from studies on alcohol addiction; but there is still much to understand.

“We currently have only three FDA-approved drugs to treat alcohol use disorder. “This pales in comparison to drugs approved to treat other diseases,” Hendershot said. “Everything we can do to study other drugs, including GLP-1 agonists It is critical for our field.”

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