Can semaglutide help stop alcohol cravings?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2025-02-13 03:00

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The glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist semaglutide - commonly sold as Ozempic and Wegovy - could help people with alcohol use disorder cut the cravings and reduce their drinking, say North American researchers. The team provided close to 50 participants with alcohol use disorder with low doses of semaglutide once a week or a placebo and found that, over nine weeks of treatment, semaglutide led to reductions in some but not all measures of weekly alcohol consumption, but significantly decreased their weekly alcohol cravings, compared to the placebo. Additionally, they found the medication to have a bonus effect of reducing people's cigarette consumption for those in the group who smoked.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Psychiatry

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Southern California, USA

Funder: This research was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant R21AA026931. The project received support from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences through grant award number UM1TR004406. Dr Hendershot acknowledges support from the Department of Psychiatry and Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

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