Obesity drugs could help curb alcohol cravings, study suggests

Medications that have transformed the treatment of obesity may also help people drink less alcohol, according to new research.

The study was small – just 48 adults – and lasted just over two months, so it’s not the final word. Experts say it’s not yet clear how safe these drugs are for people who don’t need to lose weight.

But the results add to evidence from animal studies and reports that people are finding blockbuster weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy helpful to manage cravings, not just for food, but also for tobacco and alcohol.

Scientists are studying these drugs in smokers, people with opioid addiction, and cocaine users.

“This is such promising data. And we need more of it,” said study co-author Dr Klara Klein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, who treats patients with diabetes and obesity.

“We frequently will hear that once people start these medications that their desire to drink is very reduced, if not completely abolished”.

The drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by mimicking hormones in the gut and the brain to regulate appetite and feelings of fullness.

The new study looked at one of these drugs, semaglutide, which is the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy.

The research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, was funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Several other medications are already approved to treat alcohol use disorder, so until larger studies can confirm the findings, people should talk to their doctor about what’s already available, said lead author Christian Hendershot, an addiction researcher at the University of Southern California in the US.

How the study was run

For the new study, researchers recruited people who reported symptoms of alcohol use disorder, such as difficulty controlling their drinking, but weren’t actively seeking treatment for it.

First, each person came to a lab where they were served their favourite alcoholic beverage and could drink as much as they wanted over two hours.

Then, researchers randomly assigned half the people to get a weekly injection of semaglutide. The other half got sham injections.

For nine weeks, everyone kept track of their drinking habits and their desire for alcohol. A lab visit with their favourite alcohol was repeated at the end of the study.

During the last weeks of the study, nearly 40 per cent in the semaglutide group reported no heavy drinking days compared with 20 per cent in the placebo group.

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And in the final lab test, the semaglutide group drank roughly half the amount, on average, compared to those who got the placebo.

Everyone in the study was overweight. It’s unclear how safe the drugs would be for a person of normal weight, Klein said.

Impact of semaglutide on other addictions

Smokers in the study who got the semaglutide also cut back on cigarettes, noted Luba Yammine of UTHealth Houston in the US, who is leading other research on GLP-1 drugs for people who want to quit smoking.

The finding is promising but more data is needed, Yammine said.

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The study “provides additional important information on the potential role of this new class of medications” in treating certain addictions, said Dr Lorenzo Leggio, an NIH researcher who is leading another study on semaglutide for alcohol use disorder.

“It is important to keep in mind that we need larger randomised clinical trials to confirm these findings,” Leggio said.