People using semaglutide for diabetes or weight loss have also reported experiencing a reduced desire for alcohol.
A new study confirms there’s likely something to the anecdotes, with a staggering 30 percent reduction in alcohol consumption per drinking day for those given the medication, compared to a 2 percent reduction with a placebo.
University of North Carolina psychiatrist Christian Hendershot and colleagues found weekly injections of semaglutide, better known as Ozempic or Wegovy, not only decreased consumption in those with symptoms of alcohol use disorder compared to those given a placebo, but reduced patient cravings too.
If this holds true, it could be life-changing for the almost 30 million people in the US with alcohol use disorder.
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So Hendershot and team put semaglutide to the test in a phase 2 clinical trial. It involved 48 patients with an average age of around 40, who all met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder but weren’t seeking treatment.
Each participant had a drinking history of more than 7 drinks a week for women, or 14 for men, over the last month. That includes two or more heavy drinking episodes, involving four or more drinks for women and five or more for men.
Over nine weeks, the participants received a dose of semaglutide or a placebo once a week. They were then asked to log their alcohol cravings and consumption levels during the trial.
While the number of overall drinking days didn’t alter much over the course of the trial, by the second month almost 40 percent of those in the semaglutide group had no heavy drinking days compared to 20 percent in the placebo.
“Semaglutide significantly reduced alcohol craving and drinks per drinking day,” Hendershot and team wrote in their paper.
The researchers also noted a reduction in smoking too, although this was in a very small subgroup of only seven people in the placebo group and six in the treatment group.
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The patients involved in the trial had up to moderate levels of alcohol use disorder, so the results may not translate to those who are at the drinking levels where they start to seek treatment. But the results certainly support a case for further investigation.
“These data suggest the potential of semaglutide and similar drugs to fill an unmet need for the treatment of alcohol use disorder,” says University of North Carolina endocrinologist Klara Klein.
“Larger and longer studies in broader populations are needed to fully understand the safety and efficacy in people with alcohol use disorder, but these initial findings are promising.”
This isn’t the only unexpected use for this oddly multitalented pharmaceutical. Studies in animals or humans have found semaglutide may also help those with osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease, dementia, kidney disease, and other addictions as well.
But as with all medications, it’s important to remember changing our biochemistry can come with consequences. Possible side effects of semaglutide use so far range from nausea to shrinking heart muscles. We’re still discovering the long-term impacts of this drug on human bodies.
This research was published in JAMA Psychiatry.
