A new study has found something unexpected about GLP-1 medications, drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity. These medications, sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy, may help reduce cravings for alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs.
Researchers at WashU Medicine studied over 606,000 US military veterans with type 2 diabetes for up to three years. They compared veterans taking GLP-1 drugs with those taking a different diabetes medicine. The results were striking.
Veterans without addiction history who took GLP-1 drugs were about 14% less likely to develop a substance use disorder. The protection was similar across different substances: 18% lower for alcohol, 20% for cocaine and nicotine, and 25% for opioids.
Even more dramatic were the results for veterans already struggling with addiction. Those taking GLP-1 drugs experienced about 40% fewer overdoses and roughly half the substance-related deaths. Emergency room visits fell 30%, and hospitalizations dropped 25%.
Experts think these drugs work by reducing what patients call "drug noise" in the brain, similar to how they reduce constant thoughts about food. However, this was an observational study, which cannot prove the drugs caused these improvements. More research is needed to confirm these findings and understand how GLP-1 drugs might help treat addiction.