Latest news with #USCInstituteforAddictionScience
Business Insider
30-04-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
Teens these days don't vape, they Zyn
Teens aren't into e-cigarettes anymore. Nicotine pouches like Zyn are quickly becoming their new nicotine replacement. A new study published in the JAMA Network on Wednesday explored the nicotine habits of over 10,000 teens in 10th and 12th grade. The researchers found that their nicotine pouch use nearly doubled from 2023 to 2024. Many teens reported using both pouches and vapes. The only metric that decreased was using vapes alone. Adam M. Leventhal, the executive director of the USC Institute for Addiction Science and one of the authors of the study, told Business Insider he had a feeling that pouch use would increase among teens, as demand for Zyn soared and caused continual shortages. However, he said he was surprised to see such a huge rise, so quickly. It's harder to ban pouches If you look up "Zyn" on TikTok, your feed will be littered with young people using it, commenting on the flavor options and demonstrating how to insert " upper deckies." Leventhal said that teens' general draw toward nicotine hasn't changed over the years despite efforts to spread awareness about the health risks. Based on his team's previous research, teens like that nicotine can stimulate mood, increase metabolism, and suppress appetite. Pouches are especially alluring to teens because they're more discreet, Leventhal said. "They can use them in school without teachers seeing them or even in front of their parents," he said. Pouches can be a supplement in places they can't bring their vapes, like in movie theaters or on planes. It's also what makes pouches risky. Because of their inconspicuousness, they're easy to use continuously throughout the day. A surprising gender divide The study showed that teen girls vape more than teen boys — another unexpected finding, Leventhal said. "Historically, any kind of substance, you typically see that males have higher-use levels than females," he said. "But vaping, it's appeared to kind of switch over recent years." One theory is that pouches have more masculine branding. Zyn, a Swedish brand, was originally marketed to women who wanted to quit cigarettes. Now, everyone from Wall Street bros to Josh Brolin uses Zyn. Tucker Carlson, a former Zyn user, now plans to start his own brand, as he feels Zyn is not manly enough. It all points to marketing that could make pouches "particularly attractive to boys," Leventhal said. The health risks of Zyn and vapes for teens Leventhal's main concern with the pouch trend among teens is that they're likely "exposing themselves to higher levels of nicotine" than using e-cigarettes alone. Zyn can harm gum tissue, change your brain chemistry, and increase your heart rate. Vaping, meanwhile, is considered as harmful as smoking traditional cigarettes. Both are highly addictive. While some TikTokers say they use Zyn to try to quit vaping, Leventhal said it's not a viable solution to e-cigarette addiction, especially since many just start using both. "We don't want children to use any nicotine products," he said. "So all nicotine products should be avoided."
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
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. 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.'
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
Weight loss drug Semaglutide may reduce alcohol cravings, heavy drinking and smoking, new study finds
Semaglutide, a medication widely used for diabetes and weight loss, may offer another unexpected benefit -- it could help people drink less alcohol. A study published in JAMA Psychiatry enrolled 48 adults between ages 21 and 65 who had been diagnosed with alcohol use disorder but were not actively seeking treatment. Half received semaglutide, a type of GLP-1 receptor agonist, while the other half received no treatment. Over the nine-week trial, participants taking semaglutide started at a dose of 0.25 mg per week, which gradually increased to 1.0 mg in the final week -- a much lower dose than what's typically prescribed for weight loss. ''We found the largest effects for outcomes related to drinking quantity or heavy drinking…[semaglutide] appeared to reduce drinking quantity,'' said Christian Hendershot, PhD, the study's lead author and director of clinical research at the USC Institute for Addiction Science, in an interview with ABC News. MORE: Super Bowl ad for Hims & Hers' weight loss drug sparks backlash In a controlled lab setting, participants taking semaglutide drank less alcohol. However, outside the lab, their overall drinking days and daily alcohol intake did not change significantly. They did, however, report fewer binge-drinking episodes and reduced alcohol cravings. Hendershot emphasized that the participants were not actively trying to cut back on drinking or become abstinent, making the drug's impact particularly interesting. ''The reason why semaglutide may have an effect on addictive behaviors and cravings and may play a role in treating alcohol use disorder is still not entirely clear,'' said Dr. Stephanie Widmer, an emergency medicine physician and addiction medicine expert. ''More research needs to be done in order to really get a firm grasp on what the pathophysiology is behind this,'' she added. One possible explanation is that GLP-1 receptor agonists increase feelings of fullness, which could make alcohol less appealing, Hendershot said. Previous animal studies suggest these medications may also affect the brain's reward system, reducing the desire for substances like alcohol and nicotine. However, it remains unclear if the same effect holds true in humans. MORE: Some people are overdosing on semaglutide, FDA warns Interestingly, the medication also appeared to reduce cigarette use in a small group of participants who smoked, hinting at broader effects on addictive behaviors. ''Preclinical studies indicate that GLP-1 receptor agonists reduce not just alcohol intake, but also nicotine self-administration and nicotine-related reward,'' Hendershot noted. However, no FDA-approved medications currently exist to treat both alcohol and nicotine dependence. Another unexpected benefit was that those treated with semaglutide lost 5% of their body weight over the course of the study. While this result is consistent with previous research, Hendershot noted the need to evaluate potential side effects, particularly in individuals with lower BMIs. The study did have several important limitations. It was small, lasted only nine weeks, and was conducted in a controlled setting that may not fully reflect real-world drinking behaviors. Additionally, because participants were not actively trying to reduce their alcohol consumption, their motivation—or lack of it—could have influenced the results, Henderson implied. Still, the findings suggest semaglutide could play a role in reshaping addiction treatment. According to the National Institutes of Health, only three medications are currently FDA-approved to treat alcohol dependence, and many individuals with the condition never receive any treatment. In 2023, more than 2 million people had alcohol use disorder, yet only about 8% received treatment. ''If semaglutide proves to be a better option than the three FDA-approved drugs that are currently in use, this would be a huge breakthrough for many,'' Widmer said. Dr. Christopher Wachuku is an internal medicine preliminary intern at Lankenau Medical Center and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit. Weight loss drug Semaglutide may reduce alcohol cravings, heavy drinking and smoking, new study finds originally appeared on
