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June 13, 2023 – Might the category of latest weight reduction medicine together with semaglutide – authorised as Ozempic to deal with kind 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 authorised by the FDA in June 2021, private accounts of sudden added advantages additionally started to floor for the category of medicines often called GLP-1s, which mimic a pure hormone known as glucagon-like peptide-1 that helps an individual really feel full.
Some sufferers taking these medicine for kind 2 diabetes or weight reduction additionally misplaced curiosity in addictive and compulsive behaviors similar to consuming alcohol, smoking, buying, nail biting, and pores and skin selecting, as reported in articles in The New York Occasionsand The Atlantic, amongst others. For now, the stories 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 in opposition to [alcohol use disorder], however earlier than that may occur, a number of GLP-1 trials [are needed to] show an impact on alcohol consumption,” mentioned Anders Fink-Jensen, MD, the senior creator of a latest randomized managed 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 authorised for kind 2 diabetes, however this didn’t scale back the variety of heavy consuming days, in comparison with a placebo.
However in analyses performed after the examine ended, heavy consuming days and whole alcohol consumption have been considerably lowered within the subgroup of sufferers with AUD and weight problems as decided by a physique mass index, or BMI, over 30.
The contributors have been additionally proven photos of alcohol or impartial topics whereas that they had 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 images of alcohol.
This exhibits that “one thing is occurring within the mind and activation of the reward heart is hampered by the GLP-1 compound,” mentioned Fink-Jensen, a medical psychologist on the Psychiatric Centre Copenhagen in Denmark.
“If sufferers with AUD already fulfill the standards for semaglutide (or different GLP-1 analogs) by having kind 2 diabetes and/or a BMI over 30, they will in fact use the compound proper now,” he mentioned.
His group can 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 authorised for weight problems within the U.S.
“Based mostly on the efficiency of exenatide and semaglutide,” Fink-Jensen mentioned, “we anticipate 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 searching for, and relapse consuming of alcohol, in accordance with researcher Elisabet Jerlhag Holm, PhD.
These brokers additionally suppress the reward, consumption, and motivation to devour different addictive medicine like cocaine, amphetamine, nicotine, and a few opioids, mentioned Jerlhag Holm, a professor within the Division of Pharmacology on the College of Gothenburg in Sweden.
Her group lately revealed outcomes of a examine performed in rats that gives proof to assist clarify the anecdotal stories from sufferers with weight problems handled with semaglutide who claimed additionally they lowered their alcohol consumption. Within the examine, semaglutide each lowered alcohol consumption (and relapse-like consuming) and decreased physique weight of rats of each sexes.
“Future analysis ought to discover the potential of semaglutide lowering alcohol consumption in sufferers with AUD, notably those that are chubby,” Jerlhag Holm mentioned.
“AUD is a … dysfunction [involving various components], and one medicine is most certainly not useful for all AUD sufferers,” she mentioned, “and subsequently an arsenal of various medicines is useful when treating AUD sufferers.”
Janice J. Hwang, MD, MHS, echoed these ideas.
“Anecdotally, there are a whole lot of stories from sufferers (and within the information) that this class of medicine impacts cravings and will affect addictive behaviors,” she mentioned.
Nonetheless, “I believe it’s a lot too early to inform” whether or not these medicine is likely to be authorised for treating sufferers for addictions with out extra strong medical trial knowledge, mentioned Hwang, an affiliate professor of medication 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 medical trial in 48 individuals with AUD who’re additionally people who smoke.
They purpose to find out if sufferers who obtain semaglutide photographs at more and more larger doses over 9 weeks will drink much less alcohol and smoke lower than those that obtain a placebo shot. Outcomes are anticipated in October.
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