- For the first time, a controlled case trial showed that Ozempic inhibits alcohol wishes.
- Researchers say this opens the door to research microdorny ozepic for alcohol addiction.
- Scientists are competing to identify the brain route involved to unlock new addiction treatments.
A large new study of weight loss medication presents a new idea of treating addiction: small doses of ozepic can help people cut smoking and smoking.
This week, Jama Psychiatry published the results of a small but significant trial that showed a similar effect on alcohol wishes. For two months, 48 people with alcohol use disorder were given either a small weekly semaglutide shot, active ingredient in Ozepic and Wegovy, or a placebo. Those who took the drug drank 30% less than usual and reported fewer desires.
The Federation-funded study is the first casual controlled judgment-the golden standard of clinical research-seeing ozepic and alcohol wishes, after years of reports by Ozempic users that they feel less associated with alcohol.
There was also a bonus finding. Cigarette smokers who took a dose of semaglutidi reduced their daily cigarette consumption more than those who took placebo.
Researchers say the results open up a whole new world of opportunities for drug developers. Can we produce a new, smaller dose of GLP-1 drugs that people can use to break habits?
“I could see microdosation enter the game,” Gregg Stanwood, a behavior neuroscientist at Florida State University who was not involved in the study, told Gregg, Business Insider.
“This can be a good thing if someone does it and successfully has a dry January and maybe they come back to drink in February, but it reduces binges and they go to something that is more sustainable for everyday life. “
We still have big questions about what it might look like. Further judgments are needed with different doses, a longer period of time, for more people.
However, scientists are worrying about this test, what teaches us about our brain reward system and the potential of drug development.
Here are several reasons for intrigue, according to three researchers:
A vacuum cleaner for dopamine
We still have a lot to learn how GLP-1 drugs work in the brain, though alcohol studies provide some data.
It is tempting to think that, because semaglutide can help people cut calories and sugar, it similarly reduces the “appetite” for alcohol. It is not that simple, Anders Fink-Jensen, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Copenhagen who has explored the GLP-1 effect on substance use disorders, BI told him.
For example, animal studies showed that GLP-1 drugs not only reduced alcohol desires in mice, but also slowed on the rush for a cocaine-free rats, which is calorieless.
“We know quite a bit about this,” he told Fink for Business Insider. “We just don’t know how the medicines get there. There are areas for appetite regulation and we know it arrives in these areas. But how it reaches the rest of the brain, we really don’t understand.”
One theory is that the GLP-1 medication softens the dopamine that rushes into the brain, the feeling of pleasure caused by certain behaviors such as eating caramel, or the absorption of expensive whiskey.
It does this by increasing a specific type of protein through complex cellular processes that scientists are still working.
“It acts as a vacuum cleaner for dopamine, essentially absorbs dopamine,” Stanwood Business Insider told. “Rewards like drinking, gambling, sex, share a mechanism to increase the amount of dopamine in your brain. Excess dopamine cleaning reduces for those behaviors.”
Races to explain this brain effect – to unlock a whole new drug market
There is a great potential for this area of research. Who can explain what, exactly, GLP-1 does to the brain will be the toast of the pharmaceutical industry. Treatments can develop for alcohol use disorder – and much more.
“Overall addictions, also functional dependence such as the dependence of the games,” told Dr. Markku Lähteenvuo, a researcher from the University of Eastern Finland who specializes in the way drugs affects the brain, said BI.
So the race is on. Central dopamine adjustment is the theory “most rooted for”, Lähteenvuo said, but there is no shortage of research teams that require other explanations.
It is difficult to evaluate the safety of such treatments without understanding how medicines like ozepic work in the brain, however.
“The question is. Do you do this activation of the GLP-1 receptor all the time or only when dopamine is too much?” Said Stanwood. “If it’s all the time, this can be a problem because we need these dopamine hits to strengthen these wonderful things like hugging your children, listening to music, having chocolate cake. We don’t want to catch it in nothing. ”
So far, research is a supporter of the theory that GLP-1 operates at excessive dopamine levels. A major finding of the latest study is that participants do not stop completely drinking, or even less often, but they were less likely to drink too much and less drink at the hearing.
Why really (really!) You should consult a doctor before you try this
In the future, it is possible that GLP-1 can be a tool for people to manage their drinking.
The complex part is security.
Stigma about addiction can scare investors from the development of a GLP-1 for substance abuse disorders, researchers said. Ozepic has other lucrative and attractive applications for which companies can develop future gene medication, such as preventing heart attacks or kidney disease.
“It may take easily three or four years or much longer if they are not interested or if the data is not as positive as we hope they are,” Fink-Jensen said.
People can do-and do-take GLP-1 out of weight loss labels, finding ozepic (technically a drug for diabetes) from the gray market websites. Fink-Jensen said it is a dangerous act, even under supervision, as we still do not understand exactly how to use this drug addict.
“We really suggest that people avoid describing these compounds now and expecting stronger data.”
- Morgan McFall-Johnsen contributed to reporting.