Slimming drugs as a way to tackle addiction

Patients taking GLP-1 agonists (semaglutide or tirzepatide) to treat diabetes or obesity drink less alcohol, smoke fewer cigarettes and experience less nicotine cravings – according to US pre-clinical, observational and early clinical data.

Interest in GLP-1 has grown over the last few years. This has been fuelled by reports that patients taking semaglutide or tirzepatide to treat diabetes or obesity drink less alcohol, smoke fewer cigarettes and experience less nicotine craving. These observations have sparked a wave of research into the potential use of these medicines in the treatment of addiction to alcohol, nicotine, opioids and other psychoactive substances , reports Medscape.

More recent, extensive retrospective analyses suggest that GLP-1 may be associated with lower rates of overdose, SUD-related mortality and new cases of SUD.

Czas zakończyć niepotrzebne amputacje stopy cukrzycowej

It is time to put an end to unnecessary diabetic foot amputations. The maths is very simple – the equipment needed to diagnose lesions that threaten to develop diabetic foot costs next to nothing. The price of a prosthesis reimbursed by the National Health Fund following a amputation exceeds the costs of treatment, and patient mortality within five years of amputation is close to that seen in cancer

At the present stage, much of the evidence comes from animal studies, observational studies and patient reports. Definitive answers will require randomised clinical trials. At present, more than 30 studies are analysing the effect of of GLP-1 on disorders associated with the use of alcohol, nicotine, opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine. This makes addictions one of the fastest-growing areas of GLP-1 research.

One possible explanation relates to a phenomenon that patients describe as ‘food noise’. Researchers are investigating whether, whilst GLP-1 suppresses the reward-enhanced intrusive thoughts about food, it might also dampen the compulsive cravings that are characteristic of addictions.

– The leading theory posits the existence of a reward system in the brain. Animal studies suggest that GLP-1 attenuates the dopamine release typically triggered by alcohol, nicotine, opioids and cocaine, leading to a reduction in both the consumption of psychoactive substances and the risk of relapse into addictive behaviours – notes Alvaro Teixeira Filho, a psychiatrist specialising in the treatment of addictions at Yale School of Medicine.

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