A Promising Step Forward in Addiction Treatment

Promising Data on GLP-1 Drugs Is Encouraging

You’ve seen the ads, because they’re unavoidable. Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound…all members of the GLP-1 class of drugs that have revolutionized the treatment of obesity.  The dramatic effects of these drugs result from complex biochemical processes, but the key outcome is that they reduce a person’s cravings for food. This feature has naturally attracted the attention of scientists who study drug addiction and physicians who treat it.  Could a reduction in cravings for food translate into a reduction in cravings for fentanyl, methamphetamine or alcohol? It’s too early to tell definitively, but initial results are generating considerable excitement, and a promising step forward in addiction treatment.

In an essay in the New York Times, the writer Maia Szalavitz describes recent research showing that people on a GLP-1 drug experienced significant reductions in “heavy drinking, cannabis use disorder and opioid overdoses”, suggesting that treatments based on this class of drugs might be more broadly applicable than buprenorphine or methadone, which are effective for just one class of drugs (i.e. opioids). She also highlights the important role of the Center for Addiction Science, Policy and Research, which is paying the cost of the GLP-1 drugs used in these studies. Learning about the potential uses of these drugs for curbing addiction can help physicians who want to prescribe them while also providing data to be included in an application for FDA approval, a necessary step to getting them covered by insurance providers.

These preliminary results on GLP-1 drugs, combined with promising data from the testing of psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin, point toward a new era in pharmacological treatments for addiction, particularly when combined with counseling and behavioral therapies. Continued support, from both the public and private sectors, is desperately needed to confirm and expand on these early findings, then translate the best therapeutic strategies into the clinic.

Here again is the entire New York Times article link.