New study: GLP-1s reduce alcohol hospitalizations
Plus: Novo shortages, EMS refusal, CASPR news, and wonderful anecdotes.
Lots of news to share, so I’ll move quickly.
🟦 CASPR Updates
💎 CASPR is growing and we are looking to hire a high-impact, fast moving Development Director to lead our fundraising efforts. Job posting is here, please share!
🦉 We’ve updated our Advisory Board list on the bottom of the CASPR website, if you are curious. We are blessed to have a truly incredible group of experts who are devoted to our mission.
🤝 We are collaborating with Institute for Progress and the Federation of American Scientists on our upcoming addiction innovation policy platform, which will be published in the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
🤌 New and Fascinating in Addiction Science
🔍 New study: Semaglutide is associated with a greater reduction in alcohol hospitalization (36%) than currently approved medications for AUD and is also associated with fewer somatic hospitalizations. The delay in getting a GLP-1 approved for AUD is costing thousands of lives around the world every month. CASPR is working to make pivotal trials happen and our review article has been updated to include this new study.
🕵🏽 In studies like the above, people sometimes wonder if associations with addiction reduction are perhaps driven by the patient’s desire to lose weight or improve their health, rather than the GLP-1. There’s already a mountain of evidence that the GLP-1s are causal, and here’s one more reason to believe: bariatric surgery, with a presumably similar patient intent, is associated with a small increase in AUD rates rather than the huge 50%+ decreases seen in GLP-1 recipients.
🍸 Dangerous alcohol use spiked during COVID and has stayed high. Friend of CASPR, Christian Hendershot, told the NYTimes: “We think that what happened during the pandemic was that there were a large number of people who were already in a high-risk zone, so to speak, and the pandemic pushed them over the brink into severe illness and death.” Alcohol-related liver transplant rates in young people are skyrocketing.
💉 Just when the public most needs studies on GLP-1s for addiction, Novo Nordisk has shut down semaglutide supply for researchers, due to supply constraints, while also trying to convince the FDA to shut down compounders, which will make the supply shortage far worse.
🚑 40% of people who receive an EMS visit for an opioid overdose refuse transport, and that number has been rising. It’s another example of why we need to meet patients where they are (literally) and offer medicines that they want to take— see our GRACE model. Appeal, efficacy, and ease of use are the cornerstones of product adoption and addiction medicine is no exception.
💖 Inspiring Anecdotes Corner
A patient who’s working with CASPR in our meetings with Congressional offices told us the other day about her dramatic tirzepatide-powered recovery from decades of substance use struggles: “I’m lucky that I developed type 2 diabetes, because then I got this [Mounjaro]”.
From a friend who runs a homeless service organization in Massachusetts:
I was just talking to a guy who's eaten at our soup kitchen for many years, who've I've known through many life crises and tragedies, and who's been sober the last couple years and very active in a sober outreach program.
"You know anyone who takes, like Ozempic?"
"I'm taking it now. Diabetes."
"I've read they give it to people sometimes for addiction, do you know anyone who's taking it for that?"
(looking at me like I'm an idiot) "No, it's for weight loss."
“Do you feel like it's made any change in your addiction?’
(long pause) “Yeah, I really don't think about that stuff anymore.”
A nice message on Reddit, commenting on Michelle’s story, “Thank you for sharing, I love reading these stories. In just two days, it will be my 7th month without alcohol. I never thought I would ever go a day without it before Mounjaro.”