- For the first time, randomized controlled trials showed that ozempics reduce alcohol cravings.
- Researchers say this opens the door to studying microdriving facilities for alcohol addiction.
- Scientists are competing to identify the brain pathways involved in unlocking new addiction treatments.
Major new research on weight loss medications raises new ideas for addiction treatment. Small amounts of ozempics can help people reduce their drinking and smoking.
This week, Jama Psychiatry Published Small but important test results showed similar effects on alcohol cravings. For two months, 48 people with alcohol use disorder were given either a small weekly shot of semaglutide, active ingredients from Ozempic and Wegovi, or a placebo. Those who received drugs reported lower alcohol consumption and less cravings.
The federally funded study examines Ozempic and alcohol cravings after years of reporting from Ozempic users and the first randomized controlled trial (Clinical Research Gold) that feels obsessed with alcohol, examining Ozempic and alcohol cravings. Standard).
There were also bonus discoveries. Tobacco smokers who received semaglutide doses consumed less daily tobacco than those who received a placebo.
Researchers say the results open up a whole new world of possibilities for drug developers. Can we manufacture new new doses of GLP-1 drugs that people can use to break habits?
“We absolutely saw microdoshing appear,” Greg Stanwood, a behavioral neuroscientist at Florida State University who was not involved in the research, told Business Insider.
“If someone does it and is dry in January and succeeds in returning to drinking in February, that might be a good thing, but it reduces rampage and is more sustainable for everyday life It will become something.”
There are still big questions about what it looks like. More people need further testing at different doses and long term periods.
Still, scientists are talking about this test, the brain’s reward system, and what they are teaching us about drug development potential.
According to three researchers, there are several reasons for the plot here.
Vacuum cleaner for dopamine
Alcohol research offers several clues, but there is still much to learn about how GLP-1 drugs work in the brain.
It is fascinating to think that semaglutide can help people reduce calories and sugar, and thus reduce the “appetite” of alcohol in a similar way. That’s not so simple, Anders Fink-Jensen told Bi that he is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Copenhagen who studied the effects of GLP-1 on substance use disorders.
For example, animal studies showed that GLP-1 drugs not only reduced alcohol cravings in mice, but also slowed the urge to modify rats that crave calorie-free cocaine.
“We know very little about it,” Fink Jensen told Business Insider. “We really don’t know how the drug gets there. We know that there are areas to regulate appetite and that we get to these areas.
One theory is that GLP-1 drugs cause the brain to lash out dopamine. A sense of joy caused by certain actions such as eating candy or drinking expensive whiskey.
By enhancing certain types of proteins through complex cellular processes, scientists are still operating.
“It acts as a vacuum cleaner for dopamine and basically sucks up dopamine,” Stanwood told Business Insider. “Rewards include drinking, gambling, sex, sharing mechanisms that increase the amount of dopamine in the brain. Cleaning up excess dopamine reduces the incentives for those behaviors.”
Competition to explain this brain effect – Unlock the whole new drug market
There is great potential in this field of research. Anyone who can accurately explain what GLP-1 does to the brain is a toast to the pharmaceutical industry. Treatments may be developed for alcohol use disorders.
“There are also functional addictions, such as addictions, generally game addiction,” Dr. MarkkuLähteenvuo, a researcher at the University of Eastern Finland, who specializes in how drugs affect the brain, told BI. I did.
That’s why the race started. Regulation of central dopamine is the “most rooted” theory, Lähteenvuo said, but there is no shortage of researchers looking for other explanations.
However, it is difficult to assess the safety of such treatments without a complete understanding of how drugs like Ozempic work in the brain.
“The question is, does activation of the GLP-1 receptor always do this or when dopamine is overloaded?” Stanwood said. “If that’s always the case, that can be a problem because these dopamine hits hug your child, listen to music, eat chocolate cake, and more. Because you need to strengthen these wonderful things to strengthen.
So far, studies support the theory that GLP-1 acts on excess dopamine levels. An important finding from the latest study was that participants did not stop drinking completely and were not often, but less likely to drink less per session. .
Why should you really (really!) talk to your doctor before trying this
In the future, GLP-1 may be a tool for people to manage their drinking.
The tricky parts are safe.
Stigma on addiction may be scared of investors from the development of GLP-1 for substance abuse disorders, researchers told BI. Ozempic has other advantageous and attractive applications that allow companies to develop next-generation medicines, such as preventing heart attacks and kidney disease.
“If you’re not interested, or if the data isn’t as positive as we want it to take, it can take three, four years, or much longer,” Fink-Jensen said.
People can adapt GLP-1 for weight loss and do it. Fink-Jensen said it was a dangerous move, even under supervision, as he still doesn’t know exactly how to use the drug for addiction.
“We really suggest that people should avoid prescribing these compounds now and wait for stronger data.”
- Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed the report.