Wegovy and Ozempic (semaglutide) are associated with a 50-56% reduction in alcohol addiction

Stories of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and Mounjaro reducing patients’ desire to drink alcohol have been showing up everywhere.

Now a new study in Nature Communications finds a 50-56% decrease in the risk of new or recurring alcohol addictions for people taking semaglutide for obesity or diabetes. This massive reduction adds to the growing scientific evidence that GLP-1 drugs reduce addiction across substances.

Alcohol kills about 170,000 Americans per year and only 2% of the 29 million people who qualify for AUD take existing medications. GLP-1s have the potential to reach a dramatically higher percentage of the population with or at-risk for AUD and to treat them far more effectively. Morgan Stanley is already predicting that GLP-1s will cause a drop in sales for alcohol businesses.

From the data in this study, our team created these charts.

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Patients treated with semaglutide (Ozempic / Wegovy) showed a 50% or greater reduction in the likelihood of both new alcohol use disorder (AUD) compared to patients treated with non GLP-1 anti-obesity or diabetes medications. For patients with a history of alcohol use disorder, the reduction in likelihood of a subsequent diagnosis was 56%, implying potential protective effects against relapse. These are dramatic reductions, even greater than the 41% drop that the same research group reported for semaglutide and cannabis use disorder.

The second chart shows the study’s findings when comparing semaglutide to naltrexone or topiramate for obesity. What’s remarkable about this comparison is that both naltrexone and topiramate have been shown to be effective in treating alcohol use disorder and are commonly prescribed for this purpose, in addition to their uses for obesity.

The huge reduction in risk for first-time AUD diagnoses highlights the remarkable preventative effect that GLP-1s are able to provide because they are so widely prescribed— stopping addictions before they start.

Dr. Rong Xu at Case Western and Dr. Nora Volkow, who runs the National Institute of Drug Abuse, are the corresponding authors for the study, which is based on patient health records and published in Nature Communications. 

Importantly, this is a retrospective study and not a randomized controlled trial, which means that there could be reasons why people were prescribed semaglutide vs other treatments that impacted their subsequent likelihood of a AUD diagnosis. These results are also consistent with previous trials of GLP-1s and alcohol. At least seven more trials on GLP-1s and alcohol are currently underway.

Addressing excess alcohol use at scale would also have tremendous positive effects for society as a whole, including reductions in crime. From NCDAS:

7,334 homicides have alcohol as a contributing factor annually.
48% of homicide convicts were under the influence of alcohol when they committed murder.

Ozempic and Wegovy are GLP-1RA diabetes and obesity treatments that are now being studied for a wide range of other positive health effects, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, depression, anxiety, sleep apnea, and more. They have a strong effect on reducing cravings for food and addictive substances and have potential to revolutionize addiction treatment and prevention.

Below are three other articles on GLP-1s and addiction, including some remarkable patient stories about how their desire to drink vanished.

• The Growing Scientific Case for Using Ozempic and other GLP-1s to Treat Opioid, Alcohol, and Nicotine Addiction

• News Roundup: Will GLP-1s Revolutionize Addiction Treatment?

• 27 patients describe how Ozempic and Mounjaro reduced their urge to drink alcohol

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