Another day, another study linking Ozempic to major health benefits.Published in JAMA Psychiatry, the study found that patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who were given a GLP-1 drug were less likely to be hospitalized for alcohol-related issues. The final resolve may  be interesting.

     In fact, they found it to work even better than the current most-effective drug for treating alcoholism on the market.  According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, over 28 million adults in the U.S. suffer from AUD.  Only three medications are currently approved for the treatment of AUD, and expert opinion maintains these options are not suitable for all patients, and relapse is commonplace. “I see so many patients who do not have good outcomes on the medications we have and who are desperate for help with their addiction,” said study leader Dr. Markku Lähteenvuo said. “We really do need more tools in the toolbox.” 

     Currently, the anti-addiction drug naltrexone is the most effective medicine approved for AUD, lowering the risk of hospitalization by 14%.  GLP-1 drugs treat diabetes and stimulate weight loss by mimicking he naturally occurring hormone GLP-1, which signals the body that it is full.  But the study found that semaglutide (which is sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy) and liraglutide (which is sold under the brand named Victoza) lowered the hospitalization risk by 22% and 21%,  respectively. Lähteenvuo and his team analyzed the medical records of 228,000 people diagnosed with alcohol use disorder from 2006 to 2023. All of these patients also had obesity or Type 2 diabetes. 

     Over the course of the study, 60% of participants were hospitalized for alcohol use, but alcohol-related hospitalizations were dramatically lower among people who took a GLP-1 drug.Roughly 75,000 study participants were prescribed a medication to treat AUD. Within this subset, the team documented 30,000 hospitalizations.