CNN
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Cheri Ferguson replaced her vape pen with an Ozempic pen.
One day seven weeks ago, “I thought, ‘You’re doing something about your weight. Leave your e-cigarettes at home,'” Ferguson said.
She says she hasn’t gotten it back since.
Courtesy of Cheri Ferguson
Cheri Ferguson says she noticed a change in her behavior after starting Ozempic.
Ferguson said he was one of many people taking Ozempic or similar medications for weight loss, noticing it also works for addictive behaviors such as smoking and alcohol. there is
A smoker for most of his life, Ferguson started Ozempic 11 weeks ago in an attempt to shed about 50 pounds of pre-diabetes, which had increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last summer, she switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes in hopes of quitting, but found e-cigarettes to be even more addictive. She said that changed when she started Ozempic.
“It’s like someone came in and turned the lights on, and you can see what the room is like,” Ferguson said. “And the e-cigarettes and cigarettes I’ve been smoking for years just don’t look appealing anymore. Very, very strange. Very strange.”
Ferguson said he also consumed less alcohol at Ozempic. While she was watching a football game in Buckinghamshire, England, she had many drinks in the pub, but now she is content with just one.
Some doctors say that the most common question people hear about addictive behavior from people taking Ozempic or similar is its effect on alcohol use.
“I’ve explained it to some patients and asked them about it. They’ve been like, you know, ‘Hey, I’ve noticed this change. I’ve noticed this change. Is it because of it?'” said Jenna Shaw Tronieri, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine and director of clinical services at the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders.
Toronieri runs clinical trials A study to better understand the long-term effects of semaglutide (the generic name for Ozempic, a drug approved for diabetes, and Wegoby, a drug approved for weight loss) on appetite. In many of the lifestyle modification trials she conducted, participants never reported these kinds of feelings about alcohol.
But with semaglutide, “People say, ‘Look, I’m not really into that anymore.’ I don’t feel like drinking,” she said.
And when they asked if it could be an effect of the drug, she said there was no evidence to say so with certainty, “but I believe it could be one of the effects. There are several reasons.”
Dr. Lorenzo Reggio is studying this issue at the National Institutes of Health.he and his team of researchers recently published the study Semaglutide has been shown to reduce drinking in rodents.
Drugs like semaglutide, known as a GLP-1 analogue, affect not only the gut but also the brain, which can affect interest in things like alcohol, Reggio said.
“We believe that at least one of the mechanisms by which these drugs reduce alcohol consumption is by reducing alcohol’s beneficial effects associated with the neurotransmitter dopamine in the brain,” he said. Stated. “So these drugs are likely to counteract the effects of alcohol.”
The effects may extend beyond alcohol and smoking. Reggio said his team is also studying whether semaglutide has an effect on fentanyl use disorder. The Atlantic also recently reported that people taking Ozempic said it helped them stop addictive behaviors such as nail biting and online shopping.
“There is a lot of overlap in the neurobiological mechanisms that control addictive behavior in general,” says Reggio. “So drugs like semaglutide may help people with different addictive behaviors by acting on this specific mechanism in the brain.”
More research, especially in human clinical trials, is needed to prove that semaglutide and similar drugs have this effect, he said.
But there’s not much going on. One set examining the effects of semaglutide on alcohol and tobacco use is provided by the University of North Carolina.
“We do not yet have the clinical data necessary to draw any conclusions,” Christian Hendershot, associate professor at the UNC Chapel Hill Psychiatry and Bowles Center for Alcohol Research, which is running the trial, wrote to CNN in an email. rice field. . “It is very clear from those who have contacted us about our trials, particularly some providers, that many patients are experiencing significant side benefits from receiving these treatments. seems to be
“It’s a relatively unprecedented situation to see such anecdotal clinical data emerge before a human study is published,” he added.
Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegobee, and Eli Lilly, which makes a similar drug, Munjaro, said they are not currently conducting addiction studies with these drugs.
“They have their hands full with obesity and related metabolic diseases,” said Evan Sagerman, a pharmaceutical industry analyst at financial firm BMO Capital Markets.
Also, addiction medicines, especially for alcohol use disorders, have not been a particularly profitable market for pharmaceutical companies, despite the great need. According to the report, more than 29 million Americans had an alcohol use disorder in 2021. National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and AlcoholismHowever, fewer than 5% are taking medication, according to a survey by financial firm TD Cowen.
Available drugs like Vivitrol did not see significant use when they hit the market Doctors may not have been used to treating alcoholism with drugs, Cowen said. Another drug, Antabuse, is a drug that makes you feel terrible if you drink alcohol while taking it. According to Cowen’s research, compliance is an issue because if you want to, you can stop taking it.
Analysts at Cowen wrote that “U.S. sales for Antabuse are negligible.”
Reggio said he was disappointed but not surprised to hear that drug companies were not studying GLP-1 drugs. Dependenceadded that drug industry-sponsored addiction treatment trials are in short supply. is a prominent problem for this area.
But clinical trials will be needed to prove the drug’s true efficacy as reported by Ferguson and many others.
Ferguson said he lost 38 pounds since starting the Ozempics. But more important to her, she said, is how the drug helped calm her constant thoughts about food, e-cigarettes and alcohol.
“If I had known I would feel this way, I probably would have done it a year ago when I first started struggling with weight gain,” Ferguson said. “The weight it takes off your mind is far more than any pound you can take off your body.”
