October 17, 2024

expert reaction to study looking at Ozempic as treatment for opioid and alcohol addiction

A study published in Addiction looks at the use of GLP-1 receptor agonists (Ozempic) for opioid and alcohol addiction. 

Prof Matt Field, Professor of Psychology, University of Sheffield, said:

“This study suggests that patients with heroin or alcohol addiction who are prescribed Ozempic (typically for diabetes or obesity) are less likely to be hospitalized for heroin overdose or alcohol intoxication, respectively. The findings add to those from other studies, particularly animal research, which suggest that this and similar drugs might one day be prescribed to help people with addiction.

“A note of caution is that the outcomes are very extreme instances of substance intoxication.  Those outcomes are very different from the outcomes used when researchers test new treatments for addiction, in which case we might look at whether the treatment helps people to stop taking the substance altogether (complete abstinence), or if it helps people to reduce the amount of substance they consume, or how often they consume it. Those things could not be measured in this study. This leaves open the possibility that while Ozempic may (for reasons currently unknown) prevent people from taking so much alcohol or heroin that they overdose and end up in hospital, it may not actually help them to reduce their substance use, or to abstain altogether. Indeed, one of the trials referred to in the paper (Klausen et al., 2022) reported that a similar medication “did not reduce the number of heavy drinking days compared with placebo”.”

‘The Association Between Glucose-dependent Insulinotropic Polypeptide and/or Glucagon-like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist Prescriptions and Substance-Related Outcomes in Patients with Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders: A Real-World Data Analysis’ by Qeadan F, et al. was published in Addiction at 06:01 UK time on Thursday 17th October.

DOI: 10.1111/add.16679

Declared interests:

Prof Matt Field: “I have no conflicts of interest to declare.”