Can Ozempic Treat Alcohol Addiction?

I had a couple of patients who were diabetic who were put on ompic. They also happened to have alcohol problems and noticed that not only was their diabetes brought under control by the medication, not only did they lose significant amount of weight, but they spontaneously reported to me they were drinking a lot less. Not only was their hunger reduced for food, their craving and desire for food, their appetite, but for alcohol, too. And in some cases,

they said they had lost their desire for drinking altogether. So we appear to be on the on the horizon of a breakthrough in terms of medications that can help people u reduce or completely stop drinking alcohol in problematic ways and that has to do with the GLP-1 agonist as they're known the ompic and the imano also known in their oral forms as WGO and Zeppound. And these drugs were developed and they are now FDA approved for diabetes and weight loss. They're

not approved for helping with alcohol or drug problems. The way we found out that these drugs may be useful for especially for drinking problems and and I saw this myself in my own patients. I had a couple of patients who were diabetic who were put on ompic. They also happen to

have alcohol problems. And notice that not only was their diabetes brought under control by the medication, not only did they lose significant amount of weight, that is their appetite for food was marketkedly reduced, but they spontaneously reported to me they didn't know why, but not only was their hunger reduced for food, their craving and desire for food, their appetite, but for alcohol, too. They were drinking a lot less. Now, after hearing that once or

twice, I didn't make a lot out of it. But I started to hear about that from more patients and now people who were not being given the drugs for diabetes but for obesity to lose weight and they found that their appetite for alcohol was reduced along with their appetite for food. So in collaboration with a physician colleague of mine, we started giving these medications to people who were not diabetic and not even necessarily clinically overweight, although they were happy to lose a few pounds to see if it could help them with their alcohol problem. And so far almost

without exception people have reported that it has helped them to significantly reduce their alcohol intake uh and in some cases to stop completely and to stay stopped that is to maintain abstinence from alcohol. Now the research is just really getting underway. The clinical trials these drugs are not FDA approved for this purpose. So if prescribed for this

purpose, it has to be done off label, which means that a physician can prescribe these medications for if there's good reason to think that it can be helpful, even though this particular use is not FDA approved and as long as they're followed appropriately, which they are. So I think these medications are not going to be the cure for alcohol problems, but they are certainly going to be an added advantage that we have in helping people either reduce or completely stop drinking.