Ozempic appears to curb patients’ cravings for booze, cigarettes and even GAMBLING
The groundbreaking drug Ozempic, which has helped more than 50 million Americans lose weight, has also helped smokers and problem drinkers curb their cravings.
A few studies involving rats and humans, as well as a growing number of anecdotal reports, have shown that Americans who prescribed semaglutide – the active ingredient in the diabetes drug Ozempic – saw their alcohol and nicotine consumption gradually decrease.
The drug has also been shown to help millions of users curb other compulsive behaviors in addition to drug and alcohol use, from seemingly harmless such as nail biting and snacking to potentially ruinous impulsive spending and gambling.
Scientists believe that the drug does more than just regulate blood sugar and make you feel full faster while eating. It can control the brain’s complex reward pathway that floods the brain with a rush of dopamine when something good happens, like biting into a delicious cookie, and encourages you to eat more.
The potential use of the injectable weight loss aids for addictive behaviors would change the treatment landscape, which is often limited to just a handful of government-approved drugs that cannot prevent long-term relapse.
Henry Webb, from North Carolina, completed a two-month Wegovy course after reaching his weight goal. He used to have a few drinks consistently in the evening, but said, ‘The meds didn’t make me feel like it’
Staci Rice (pictured), 40, said she can’t tolerate coffee or Kit-Kats after using Wegovy
In 2022, more than 5 million prescriptions for Ozempic, Mounjaro, Rybelsus or Wegovy were written for weight management, compared to just over 230,000 in 2019. According to market research firm Komodo Health, this represents an increase of more than 2,000 percent.
Dr. Chris Palmer, a Harvard psychiatrist who focuses on the link between mental health and metabolism, told DailyMail.com, “The very same brain circuits that regulate our food intake also play a role in our addictive behaviors.”
Medications like Ozempic and Wegovy that help people shed excess pounds are called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic the GLP-1 hormone naturally produced by the gut in response to eating.
This hormone curbs hunger and slows the rate at which a person’s stomach empties, making a person feel full for longer. GLP-1 agonists may also decrease the brain’s response to rewarding stimuli, including delicious food and possibly other substances such as alcohol and nicotine.
Dr. Palmer added: ‘The general rule of thumb is that substances that promote our survival and/or our ability to reproduce activate that (dopamine reward) system. Addictive substances activate that system and in a way it becomes a circular logic.
‘What makes a drug addictive? If it activates that system. And so all of these things – alcohol, nicotine, food, especially delicious foods that are high in sugar and fat – these types of foods tend to stimulate this system much more. If you stimulate it repeatedly over time, or at a higher intensity than it is intended for, as cocaine would, you desensitize the system in a sense.”
The most commonly reported side effects of semaglutide drugs marketed as Wegovy and Ozempic affect the gastrointestinal tract, causing constipation, nausea, and diarrhea.
Evidence of semaglutide’s anti-addiction properties in humans is sparse, but there have been plenty of anecdotal reports of users suddenly losing their taste and tolerance for alcohol.
Henry Webb, from North Carolina, completed a two-month Wegovy course after reaching his weight goal.
He used to have a few drinks consistently in the evening, but said, “I didn’t feel like it with the meds.”
Another semaglutide user named Staci Rice, 40, said her favorite chocolate sweets, Kit Kats, are now repulsive to her.
Meanwhile, Chicago’s Jamel Corona successfully dropped 60 pounds on Wegovy after just 15 months.
Ms. Corona went from a social drinker, having a glass of wine after work or a few beers on a night out, to a complete loss of her tolerance for alcoholic beverages.
She told Today, alcohol is a hard pass for her, adding, “I can’t stand beer at all, so I haven’t had a beer in months. … I can’t remember the last time I drank wine. It’s just too sweet.’
She told of an incident at a brewery where she and friends were celebrating her husband’s birthday. She drank three beers in a four-hour period and became violently ill, the first time she had ever become physically ill from alcohol.
Ms Corona said: ‘I just had a really horrible reaction to it. And I thought: I never want to feel that way again.’
Another Ozempic user saw their gambling addiction gradually decreasean addiction fueled by heavy Adderall use.
The user said, ‘I first used Ozempic on January 15th. Almost immediately, the thought of gambling seemed so blatantly stupid—not just financially stupid, but a waste of time. It actually seemed boring to me for the first time ever.
“Now all the addictions are gone and I’ve lost 50 pounds and lost weight steadily. It was almost a literal miracle for me!’
And while not every patient will see a reduction in their tendency to smoke, drink, or other compulsive negative behaviors, enough has happened for addiction researchers to pay attention.
Ozempic was initially approved for the treatment of diabetes while prescribed off label for weight loss. It has since become a drug worth tens of billions to its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, which makes a higher-dose version called Wegovy.
Wegovy and Ozempic work by prompting the body to produce a hormone called glucagon-like peptide-1, which is released naturally from the gut after meals.
Nearly 30 million American teens and adults are addicted to alcohol, while 24 million Americans are addicted to nicotine.
That means millions of people who engage in these problematic behaviors and don’t necessarily need to lose pounds could potentially benefit from semaglutide.
And smokers who have struggled to quit for a long time may soon see light at the end of the tunnel.
A 2023 report in the journal Psychopharmacology reported that rats addicted to nicotine given a GLP-1 receptor agonist called liraglutide were less interested in nicotine, helped them avoid overeating when they stopped taking nicotine, and prevented them from gaining too much weight.
For now, the strongest evidence has been in animal studies. Another such study was published in the biomedical research journal JCI Insight in May 2023.
American and Austrian researchers wanted to test how different amounts of semaglutide might affect the way mice and rats drink alcohol, especially during binge drinking. They hypothesized that semaglutide could make rats and mice drink less alcohol and sugary drinks without affecting the amount of non-sugary things they drink.
Semaglutide injections at all doses helped mice drinking sweetened alcohol drink less than those in the control group.
They also found that at certain doses – 0.003 mg/kg, 0.01 mg/kg, 0.03 mg/kg and 0.1 mg/kg – semaglutide reduced alcohol intake compared to the control group.
Even mice given semaglutide but not given alcohol saw their consumption of sweetened drinks drop.
In another study reported in the journal last month eBioMedicineresearchers at the University of Gothenburg tested semaglutide on dozens of rats that had been exposed to alcohol and had come to enjoy it.
They were allowed to drink to their heart’s content. The rodents that took semaglutide consumed half as much alcohol as the rodents that received a placebo.
After a week of abstaining from alcohol to increase their cravings, alcoholic rats given the medication still drank much less, which could have enormous potential for treating alcoholism that often involves repeated relapses.