Latest news with #ChristianHendershot
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Ozempic Reduces Desire to Binge Alcohol, Suggests Amazing New Study
People using semaglutide for diabetes or weight loss have also reported experiencing a reduced desire for alcohol. A new study confirms there's likely something to the anecdotes, with a staggering 30 percent reduction in alcohol consumption per drinking day for those given the medication, compared to a 2 percent reduction with a placebo. University of North Carolina psychiatrist Christian Hendershot and colleagues found weekly injections of semaglutide, better known as Ozempic or Wegovy, not only decreased consumption in those with symptoms of alcohol use disorder compared to those given a placebo, but reduced patient cravings too. If this holds true, it could be life-changing for the almost 30 million people in the US with alcohol use disorder. So Hendershot and team put semaglutide to the test in a phase 2 clinical trial. It involved 48 patients with an average age of around 40, who all met the diagnostic criteria for alcohol use disorder but weren't seeking treatment. Each participant had a drinking history of more than 7 drinks a week for women, or 14 for men, over the last month. That includes two or more heavy drinking episodes, involving four or more drinks for women and five or more for men. Over nine weeks, the participants received a dose of semaglutide or a placebo once a week. They were then asked to log their alcohol cravings and consumption levels during the trial. While the number of overall drinking days didn't alter much over the course of the trial, by the second month almost 40 percent of those in the semaglutide group had no heavy drinking days compared to 20 percent in the placebo. "Semaglutide significantly reduced alcohol craving and drinks per drinking day," Hendershot and team wrote in their paper. The researchers also noted a reduction in smoking too, although this was in a very small subgroup of only seven people in the placebo group and six in the treatment group. The patients involved in the trial had up to moderate levels of alcohol use disorder, so the results may not translate to those who are at the drinking levels where they start to seek treatment. But the results certainly support a case for further investigation. "These data suggest the potential of semaglutide and similar drugs to fill an unmet need for the treatment of alcohol use disorder," says University of North Carolina endocrinologist Klara Klein. "Larger and longer studies in broader populations are needed to fully understand the safety and efficacy in people with alcohol use disorder, but these initial findings are promising." This isn't the only unexpected use for this oddly multitalented pharmaceutical. Studies in animals or humans have found semaglutide may also help those with osteoarthritis, fatty liver disease, dementia, kidney disease, and other addictions as well. But as with all medications, it's important to remember changing our biochemistry can come with consequences. Possible side effects of semaglutide use so far range from nausea to shrinking heart muscles. We're still discovering the long-term impacts of this drug on human bodies. This research was published in JAMA Psychiatry. Going Gluten Free Could Come at a Cost to Your Nutrition And Your Pocket A Global Oxygen Crisis Is Putting Millions of Lives at Risk Doctor Realizes He's Having a Heart Attack While Treating Heart Attack Patient
Euronews
13-02-2025
- Health
- Euronews
Blockbuster weight loss drugs could help with alcohol cravings, small new study suggests
Medications that have transformed the treatment of obesity may also help people drink less alcohol, according to new research. The study was small – just 48 adults – and lasted just over two months, so it's not the final word. Experts say it's not yet clear how safe these drugs are for people who don't need to lose weight. But the results add to evidence from animal studies and reports that people are finding blockbuster weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy helpful to manage cravings, not just for food, but also for tobacco and alcohol. Scientists are studying these drugs in smokers, people with opioid addiction, and cocaine users. 'This is such promising data. And we need more of it,' said study co-author Dr Klara Klein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US, who treats patients with diabetes and obesity. 'We frequently will hear that once people start these medications that their desire to drink is very reduced, if not completely abolished'. The drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by mimicking hormones in the gut and the brain to regulate appetite and feelings of fullness. The new study looked at one of these drugs, semaglutide, which is the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy. The research, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, was funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). Several other medications are already approved to treat alcohol use disorder, so until larger studies can confirm the findings, people should talk to their doctor about what's already available, said lead author Christian Hendershot, an addiction researcher at the University of Southern California in the US. How the study was run For the new study, researchers recruited people who reported symptoms of alcohol use disorder, such as difficulty controlling their drinking, but weren't actively seeking treatment for it. First, each person came to a lab where they were served their favourite alcoholic beverage and could drink as much as they wanted over two hours. Then, researchers randomly assigned half the people to get a weekly injection of semaglutide. The other half got sham injections. For nine weeks, everyone kept track of their drinking habits and their desire for alcohol. A lab visit with their favourite alcohol was repeated at the end of the study. During the last weeks of the study, nearly 40 per cent in the semaglutide group reported no heavy drinking days compared with 20 per cent in the placebo group. And in the final lab test, the semaglutide group drank roughly half the amount, on average, compared to those who got the placebo. Everyone in the study was overweight. It's unclear how safe the drugs would be for a person of normal weight, Klein said. Impact of semaglutide on other addictions Smokers in the study who got the semaglutide also cut back on cigarettes, noted Luba Yammine of UTHealth Houston in the US, who is leading other research on GLP-1 drugs for people who want to quit smoking. The finding is promising but more data is needed, Yammine said. The study 'provides additional important information on the potential role of this new class of medications' in treating certain addictions, said Dr Lorenzo Leggio, an NIH researcher who is leading another study on semaglutide for alcohol use disorder. 'It is important to keep in mind that we need larger randomised clinical trials to confirm these findings,' Leggio said.
Los Angeles Times
12-02-2025
- Health
- Los Angeles Times
Could obesity drugs help with alcohol cravings? New study suggests potential
Medications that have transformed the treatment of obesity may also help people drink less alcohol, according to new government-funded research. The study was small — just 48 adults — and lasted just over two months, so it's not the final word. Experts say it's not yet clear how safe these drugs are for people who don't need to lose weight. But the results add to evidence from animal studies and reports that people are finding drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy helpful to manage cravings, not just for food, but also for tobacco and alcohol. Scientists are studying these drugs in smokers, people with opioid addiction and cocaine users. 'This is such promising data. And we need more of it,' said study co-author Klara Klein of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a doctor who treats patients with diabetes and obesity. 'We frequently will hear that once people start these medications ... their desire to drink is very reduced, if not completely abolished.' The drugs, known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, work by mimicking hormones in the gut and the brain to regulate appetite and feelings of fullness. The new study looked at one of these drugs, semaglutide, which is the drug in Ozempic and Wegovy. The research, published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, was funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health. There are already three medications approved to treat alcohol use disorder, so until larger studies can confirm the findings, people should talk to their doctor about what's already available, said lead author Christian Hendershot, an addiction researcher at USC. For the new study, researchers recruited people who reported symptoms of alcohol use disorder, such as difficulty controlling their drinking, but weren't actively seeking treatment for it. First, each person came to a lab where they were served their favorite alcoholic beverage and could drink as much as they wanted over two hours. Then, researchers randomly assigned half the people to get a weekly injection of semaglutide. The other half got sham injections. For nine weeks, everyone kept track of their drinking habits and their desire for alcohol. A lab visit with their favorite alcohol was repeated at the end of the study. During the last weeks of the study, nearly 40% in the semaglutide group reported no heavy drinking days compared with 20% in the placebo group. And in the final lab test, the semaglutide group drank roughly half the amount, on average, compared with those who got the placebo. Everyone in the study was overweight. It's unclear how safe the drugs would be for a person of normal weight, Klein said. Smokers in the study who got the semaglutide also cut back on cigarettes, noted Luba Yammine of UTHealth Houston, who is leading other research on GLP-1 drugs for people who want to quit smoking. The finding is promising but more data are needed, Yammine said. The study 'provides additional important information on the potential role of this new class of medications' in treating certain addictions, said Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, an NIH researcher who is leading an ongoing 20-week trial of semaglutide for alcohol use disorder in Baltimore. 'It is important to keep in mind that we need larger randomized clinical trials to confirm these findings,' Leggio said. Johnson writes for the Associated Press. The AP Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
CNN
12-02-2025
- Health
- CNN
Ozempic shown to reduce drinking in first trial in alcohol-use disorder
For years, people taking Ozempic or other drugs in the same class for diabetes and weight loss have noticed the medicines don't just curb their desire to eat; for some, they also lead them to drink less alcohol. Now, the first clinical trial – although relatively small and limited in duration – has confirmed it. A study of 48 people with signs of moderate alcohol-use disorder found that those taking low doses of semaglutide – the generic name of Ozempic – for nine weeks saw significantly greater reductions in how much alcohol they drank, as well as cravings for alcohol, compared with people on a placebo. The results were published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. The findings underscore what multiple analyses of real-world use of the so-called GLP-1 medicines, as well as studies in animals, had already hinted at: Ozempic and similar drugs, already incredibly popular, could help reduce risks of overconsuming alcohol, if the results bear out in larger and longer trials. 'We hoped to see a reduction in drinking and craving,' said Dr. Christian Hendershot, director of clinical research at the USC Institute for Addiction Science and the lead author of the study. 'What I didn't expect was the magnitude of the effects looks fairly good … compared to other alcohol-use disorder medications.' Alcohol-use disorder, or AUD, affects almost 30 million people in the United States, according to the 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and it's characterized by having trouble stopping or controlling alcohol use despite negative consequences from it. And increasingly, health guidance points to consuming less alcohol or abstaining to improve health; last month, former US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory warning that alcohol raises the risk of at least seven types of cancer, and called for updated health warning labels on alcoholic beverages. Whether Ozempic and other similar drugs present a new way of treating AUD will depend on larger trials in patients more heavily afflicted by the disorder, experts said, and potentially whether research can yield a better understanding of how the medicines work to reduce drinking. There are three medicines approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for AUD, but fewer than 2% of people with the disorder receive treatment with them, Hendershot and his co-authors wrote in their paper, noting few people may know about them and that stigma may pose a barrier to treatment. One of the medicines, naltrexone, has shown a small effect size on alcohol-use disorder, Hendershot told CNN. The semaglutide trial showed effect sizes 'in the medium to large range,' he said, although he urged caution about the results since the trial 'was the first to look at this question in a controlled way.' Semaglutide, sold by Novo Nordisk as Ozempic for type 2 diabetes and Wegovy for obesity, is part of a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, mimicking the hormone GLP-1 to reduce appetite, slow stomach emptying and regulate insulin. Eli Lilly sells the other major drugs in the class, Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for obesity, based on the active ingredient tirzepatide. In addition to GLP-1, they also mimic another hormone called GIP. The drugs work in both the gut and the brain – which may be the way they could help with AUD, said Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a physician-scientist at the National Institutes of Health who wasn't involved in this study. 'More research is needed to understand the mechanism(s) of action of these medications in AUD,' Leggio, who's published research on semaglutide's ability to reduce alcohol drinking in animals, wrote in an email to CNN. 'Nonetheless, the work done now suggests that mechanisms may include their effect in reducing alcohol craving and in reducing the rewarding effects of alcohol.' The study, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and conducted at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, enrolled people with alcohol-use disorder who weren't seeking treatment. They reported drinking more than seven drinks in a week, if they were women, or 14 if they were men, within the last month, with two or more heavy drinking episodes, defined as at least four drinks at a time for women or five for men. Half received low-dose injections of semaglutide each week and half received a placebo shot. They came in weekly for visits. Their first was a bit unusual for a clinical trial, although not for one studying alcohol: participants spent two hours in a lab made to feel like a living room, complete with National Geographic episodes playing on TV – and a bar stocked with their favorite alcoholic drink. 'They were free to drink as much as they wanted to, up to a limit we set' for safety, Hendershot said. Someone from the study would come in every half an hour to take breath alcohol measurements and administer some questionnaires. They did it again at the end of the nine weeks of treatment. Then the researchers compared the results. When participants returned to the living room lab at the end of the study, those taking semaglutide drank about 40% less alcohol than those on placebo, the study found. In additional measures in the study, participants on the medicine also drank fewer drinks per day overall and had fewer heavy drinking days, as well as reduced cravings for alcohol. 'It's one of the first trials that's a randomized, controlled trial that have said, 'You know what, there is evidence that people will drink less if they're taking this medicine,'' Dr. Daniel Drucker, a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto who pioneered research on GLP-1, told CNN. Drucker noted, though, he'd like to see more detailed information about the side effects individual participants experienced, and whether they had any correlation with how much alcohol they drank. 'If you have persistent low-grade nausea and you're not feeling well, well of course you wouldn't drink as much,' Drucker said – although he noted this is not the main reason people lose weight on the medicines, as the side effects usually are worst when people begin treatment and when they increase their doses. The most common side effects of GLP-1 medicines are nausea, constipation and other gastrointestinal issues, and participants on semaglutide in the trial experienced generally mild effects of that nature as well, the researchers said. Hendershot said the size of the study meant they didn't feel they had enough data to measure the correlation of side effects with drinking, but said that since side effects are generally a bigger issue at the beginning of treatment and during dosage increases, 'we don't think that GI side effects can fully account for the findings.' In the study, the effects on drinking were generally largest at the end. Hendershot said it's something to study more definitively in the future. The trial found that semaglutide didn't appear to affect how many days out of the week people chose to drink alcohol – just that when they drank, they drank less. And that may be a helpful goal for people seeking treatment for AUD, said Dr. Raymond Anton, an addiction psychiatrist and emeritus professor at the Medical University of South Carolina. 'The field in general has been pushing for a reduction goal in clinical trials and the FDA is moving in that direction,' Anton told CNN by email. 'Most people seeking treatment do not want a goal of abstinence for the rest of their lives.' Anton also said he'd like to see data on whether side effects like nausea and fatigue had an effect on alcohol drinking, and also whether there was a correlation between weight loss and drinking reduction. In the study, participants on semaglutide lost about 5% of their body weight over nine weeks. He also noted the people in the study were different from those who typically seek treatment for AUD; it had a lot more women than men – atypical of most AUD trials, he said – and they were of higher than normal weight, which he said also isn't typical of the average person seeking treatment for AUD. And, Anton said, those seeking treatment generally drink more than people in this trial reported – seven to eight drinks per day, and often much more, on the majority of days. There are already more trials underway to better understand the promise of GLP-1 drugs in AUD, and one that's about to start at the NIH. But to obtain FDA approval for the disorder, pharmaceutical companies likely need to get involved. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have been slower to pursue addiction indications for the medicines, while running trials proving their cardiovascular benefits, effects on kidney disease, heart failure and sleep apnea. Novo Nordisk is even evaluating semaglutide for Alzheimer's disease, with results expected late this year. But last year, the Danish drug giant said it would look at semaglutide's effects on alcohol consumption as part of a trial in alcohol-related liver disease. And Lilly's CEO told an audience at an event in December that the company planned to start large studies in alcohol abuse, nicotine use and drug abuse this year. Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every Tuesday from the CNN Health team. Key questions remain, including how the drugs should be used in people who don't have excess weight. In Hendershot's study, anyone with a body mass index, or BMI, of at least 23 could enroll, which would include people considered to have a healthy body weight; the medicines are approved by the FDA for people with a BMI of 30, indicating obesity, or of at least 27 – overweight – and a weight-related health condition. Only one person in the trial started with a BMI of less than 24.9, the researchers said. And there's still more data to come. Hendershot and his team also assessed cigarette use among a subsection of participants who smoked. Though the sample size was small – just 13 of the 48 participants reported smoking cigarettes – the study found those on semaglutide tended to smoke fewer cigarettes per day, mirroring anecdotes from patients prescribed the drugs for weight loss. 'Should GLP-1 receptor agonists prove efficacious for both alcohol reduction and smoking cessation,' the researchers concluded, 'potential health implications could be substantial.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Can weight loss drugs help you cut back on drinking? A new study shows their effect on alcohol cravings.
Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — known as glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1s — have made headlines and surged in popularity for their unique ability to help patients lose weight by reducing food cravings. But a new study is offering further evidence that these drugs may be instrumental in reducing other cravings as well — including helping people cut back on alcohol and drinking habits. Researchers recruited 48 adults with alcohol use disorder — that is, the inability to stop or control one's drinking despite negative consequences — who weren't actively seeking treatment, and randomly assigned the participants either weekly, low-dose injections of Ozempic (the brand name of semaglutide, a type of GLP-1) or a placebo for nine weeks. Then, they monitored the participants' weekly drinking habits. After nine weeks, researchers found that participants who received the semaglutide injections experienced reduced weekly alcohol cravings and reduced the average number of drinks they consumed on drinking days. Those who received semaglutide injections also reduced their number of heavy drinking days (defined as four or more drinks for women and five or more for men), with nearly 40% of people in the semaglutide group reporting no heavy drinking days in the last month of treatment. See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. This study is the latest to demonstrate how drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy could be used to tackle other health challenges. Numerous recent studies on both animal and human patients have found that GLP-1s used for weight loss and diabetes could also be used to treat different forms of addiction — from drug and smoking addiction to alcohol addiction. Christian Hendershot, an author of the study and director of clinical research at the University of Southern California's Institute for Addiction Science, tells Yahoo Life that based on prior research, researchers did expect to see some reductions in drinking. But he says they were surprised by what a substantial effect semaglutide had, particularly on heavy drinking habits, despite only giving participants the lowest dosage of the drug. 'These findings give us reason to expect that studies with higher doses might even see stronger effects,' Hendershot says. Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, senior investigator at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, which funded the study, tells Yahoo Life that the study's findings are 'exciting news.' 'It provides additional important information on the potential role of this new class of medications in alcohol use disorder — and addictions at large,' Leggio says. Tim Stockwell, a scientist at the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research, tells Yahoo Life he's 'intrigued' by the study's findings, adding that it makes sense given the drugs' effectiveness at reducing food cravings. 'It may indicate that these drugs have fundamental effects on our brain reward systems — which reduce appetites not just for food,' he says. Carolina Haass-Koffler is a pharmacologist and associate professor of psychiatry at Brown University who is also currently conducting clinical research on GLP-1 medications and addiction. She tells Yahoo Life that this is further evidence of the 'exciting potential' for these medications to not only help manage alcohol use, but also address the serious health risks that can come along with it. 'Patients with alcohol use disorder are often at higher risk for other health problems, including heart issues, diabetes and liver disease,' Haass-Koffler says. 'Since GLP-1 medications can help with weight loss, blood sugar control and possibly even alcohol cravings, they could be a helpful option for this comorbid population — addressing both addiction and physical health problems at the same time.' While more evidence that semaglutide may help people drink less is indeed good news, you shouldn't start taking these drugs to help curb drinking habits just yet. The study authors and other experts note that larger and longer studies are needed to fully understand the safety and efficacy of these drugs in people with alcohol use disorder. Christopher Kahler, a psychiatry professor and director of alcohol and addiction studies at Brown University, points out that while the study found that semaglutide helped people drink less, it's not yet known if the drug would help people who are trying to quit drinking altogether. 'This study was not testing semaglutide as a treatment for alcohol use disorder,' Kahler tells Yahoo Life. 'The study was simply observing whether people given semaglutide made greater changes in their drinking compared to those given a placebo. We don't know yet whether it would help people who are in treatment for an alcohol use disorder.' And while GLP-1 medications have been on the market for diabetes since 2005, Dr. Klara Klein, one of the authors of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina, says it's important to note that the safety of semaglutide and other such weight loss drugs hasn't been established yet in people with alcohol use disorder. 'These therapies can result in substantial weight loss — which in a person with alcohol use disorder may be detrimental,' Klein tells Yahoo Life. The treatment protocols — like how much medication to prescribe, or how long the medication should be taken — would likely also differ for someone with alcohol use disorder versus diabetes or obesity. And a more individualized approach — tailoring these medications specifically to the needs of patients hoping to reduce or cut out drinking — is also key. Haass-Koffler points out that the health profile of a person with alcohol use disorder can put them at greater risk for some of the risk factors of semaglutide. Pancreatitis, for example, is a 'known adverse event associated with semaglutide,' and individuals with alcohol use disorder are already at increased risk of this disease. There are currently three medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat alcohol use disorder by reducing cravings and alleviating withdrawal symptoms. 'I'm optimistic that semaglutide may become another effective treatment option,' Kahler says, 'but we are not there yet.' Check out these expert tips from Kahler and others on how to reduce your drinking habits independently. Putting 'barriers' in place, documenting your progress and confiding in a friend about your goals can help you cut back if you aren't ready to completely stop drinking, and remember that any reduction in drinking, no matter how small, has health benefits.
