Heather Le Biller shed 9 kilos throughout the first week of taking Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster diabetes drug Ozempic – after which much more as she continued treatment. 

Le Biller, a flight attendant who lives in France, seen her urge for food calm down whereas taking the weekly injection. However so did her cravings for wine, a drink she referred to as “nearly customary to pair with each dinner” in France. 

“Once I was on Ozempic, it made me not need that as a lot anymore,” Le Biller informed CNBC. “I might have a number of sips of wine and simply be happy and transfer on. I did not want a number of glasses an evening, so it positively appears to assist with that.” 

Le Biller is amongst a number of sufferers who took diabetes and weight reduction medication and likewise seen an impact on their cravings for alcohol, nicotine, opioids and even some compulsive behaviors, reminiscent of on-line purchasing and playing.

These medication – together with Ozempic and its weight reduction counterpart from Novo Nordisk, Wegovy – are referred to as GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone produced within the intestine to suppress an individual’s urge for food. 

These anecdotal experiences add to the rising listing of potential advantages of GLP-1s past shedding undesirable kilos. Dramatic weight reduction is the first purpose why these medication have skyrocketed in reputation within the U.S., although they will price round $1,000 a month and a few well being insurers have stopped covering them altogether. 

“We’re prescribing these medication and seeing this impact as a secondary profit in sufferers. Certainly one of my sufferers even stated they don’t seem to be doing as a lot on-line purchasing, which helps their pockets,” stated Dr. Angela Fitch, an weight problems medication doctor and president of the Weight problems Drugs Affiliation. That group is the biggest group of physicians, nurse practitioners and different health-care suppliers devoted to treating weight problems. 

This putting impact of GLP-1s is not a brand new concept. A number of studies have demonstrated that sure GLP-1s curb alcohol consumption in rodents and monkeys. 

Extra analysis must be executed, significantly on people, to show that the medication have that impact. Meaning it might take years earlier than the Meals and Drug Administration and different regulators worldwide approve medication like Ozempic and Wegovy as dependancy remedies. 

Novo Nordisk informed CNBC in a press release that they don’t seem to be pursuing that analysis.

“Pharma has this common lack of curiosity in investing within the dependancy subject” as a result of an ideal storm of things, together with the excessive stigma round dependancy problems amongst medical doctors, physicians and even sufferers, in line with Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, scientific director of the Nationwide Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA.

Leggio and different scientists are working to fill the hole – and have already made strides towards confirming the potential of GLP-1s as dependancy remedies.

Scientists have printed practically a dozen studies exhibiting how GLP-1s cease binge ingesting in rats and mice, scale back their want for alcohol, stop relapse in addicted animals and reduce alcohol consumption total. 

Earlier research have examined older, much less potent GLP-1s reminiscent of exenatide, a drug authorised for diabetes below the names Byetta and Bydureon. 

However newer research on semaglutide – the generic identify for Ozempic and Wegovy – and one other drug from Eli Lilly referred to as dulaglutide “are probably the most promising” as a result of they decreased alcohol consumption in animals by 60% to 80%, in line with pharmacologist Elisabet Jerlhag. 

Research have additionally proven that rats that cease taking dulaglutide, which is authorised for diabetes below the identify Trulicity, “take weeks earlier than they begin ingesting once more,” she stated.

Jerlhag and her colleagues on the College of Gothenburg in Sweden have studied the impact of GLP-1s on addictive behaviors for greater than a decade. 

Different research on animals have additionally discovered that GLP-1 medication scale back the consumption of nicotine, cocaine, heroin and amphetamines. 

Few research have been executed on people, however six scientific trials at the moment are underway investigating how semaglutide could alter folks’s ingesting and smoking habits. 

The rationale behind this anti-addiction impact of GLP-1s is that these medication additionally have an effect on the mind, not simply the intestine, in line with NIDA’s Leggio. 

“The mechanism within the mind that regulates overeating is vital in regulating addictive behaviors as effectively,” Leggio informed CNBC. “There’s a clear shared overlap. So it is potential that the drugs could assist folks with dependancy by performing on that particular mechanism.”

GLP-1s particularly lower the quantity of dopamine the mind releases after folks bask in behaviors like ingesting, smoking and even consuming a candy dessert, in line with Dr. Steven Batash, a gastroenterologist who supplies nonsurgical weight reduction procedures in Queens, New York. 

Batash stated dopamine is a neurotransmitter that “reinforces the pleasure” of doing these actions. When GLP-1s take away that pleasure, in addition they get rid of the motivation to do these actions. 

Leggio stated scientists have to conduct extra double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled studies on people – or trials the place each individuals and researchers do not know who’s getting randomly chosen to obtain a placebo or an precise drug. These kinds of research are “the gold customary” for proving whether or not a remedy achieves a sure impact or not, he added

However even when these trials verify that GLP-1s can scale back addictive behaviors in people, “it’ll almost definitely work for some sufferers and never others,” in line with Leggio. 

“We already know, as a matter of reality, that these drugs and any drug total don’t work for everyone,” he stated. 

For instance, the only clinical study on this space investigated whether or not exenatide might deal with alcohol use dysfunction in folks, as in contrast with cognitive behavioral remedy.

However a subgroup evaluation of that 2022 research discovered that exenatide decreased ingesting in a subgroup of individuals who had weight problems, whereas the drug truly elevated ingesting in individuals who did not. 

The rationale could also be that “leaner sufferers” handled with exenatide skilled a bigger lower in blood sugar, which is likely to be related to elevated cravings for alcohol, the researchers wrote within the research.

However even that speculation must be confirmed with additional analysis. 

It is also unclear how lengthy the anti-addiction impact of GLP-1s will final. That is already one grievance sufferers have on the subject of weight reduction: Individuals who drop pounds after taking Ozempic or Wegovy are likely to gain most of it – or much more – again inside a number of years. 

“It is potential that some folks will relapse and return to heavy ingesting in the event that they stopped taking the treatment,” Leggio stated. He added that some sufferers will want fixed remedy as a result of dependancy is a continual illness. 

Nevertheless, Leggio stated there’s “nothing mistaken” with a affected person looking for GLP-1s to deal with diabetes or weight problems, along with an dependancy dysfunction. 

“If you wish to see whether or not Ozempic will make it easier to higher management the sugar in your blood but in addition make it easier to along with your ingesting, that is great. Killing two birds with one stone,” Leggio stated. “But when the one purpose you need to take the drug is due to your alcohol or smoking, then you must anticipate extra proof.” 

It could take years, however scientists and different well being consultants hope {that a} new class of remedies for alcohol use dysfunction, smoking and different addictive behaviors is on the horizon. 

“It could be that three, 4 or 5 years from now, you and I are going to say that GLP-1 agonists are great for treating delicate diabetes, great for weight reduction, and maybe we may also say that they’re great for curbing addictive behaviors,” Batash informed CNBC.

However even when GLP-1s get authorised to deal with dependancy, it is unclear how many individuals would take them. Uptake of existing medications for dependancy is already low.

About 14 million American adults had alcohol use dysfunction – a illness related to uncontrolled ingesting – up to now yr as of 2019. However just one.6% used any of the three FDA-approved medication for the situation.