Could the Side Effects of Semaglutide Save Lives?
By Marisa Panella
Scott Disick, Whoopi Goldberg, Oprah Winfrey, Kelly Clarkson, Tracy Morgan. A random list of celebrities with one similarity — their public use of the weight management drug Ozempic. But could this famous drug also help them and their fellow celebrities battling substance abuse?
In the media, Ozempic has garnered a reputation as a “miracle drug” which makes losing weight a breeze. Countless celebrities and influencers have been accused of taking this drug, which some TikTok users have called a cheat for already skinny people to get even skinnier.
To the medical community, Ozempic isn’t actually a weight loss drug at all but a form of diabetes medication known as semaglutide, which received its first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2017 under the now well-known brand name Ozempic. Initially, it was approved exclusively for diabetes care, with weight loss just being a potential side effect. Eventually, the FDA approved semaglutide for weight loss and obesity treatment in 2021 under the brand name Wegovy.
Semaglutide is part of a medication class known as GLP-1 agonists which stimulate the pancreas to release the hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), a hormone the body naturally releases after food consumption. This hormone release can alter the satisfaction levels that come after eating.
Semaglutide has already worked wonders for people trying to manage their A1C (a person’s average blood sugar level over a three-month period) and weight. But another side effect of the drug appears to be a decrease in alcohol and drug cravings. Could semaglutide also help people battling addiction?
Substance abuse remains one of the main health risks in the U.S. In 2022, 48.6 million (16.7%) Americans, twelve and older, reported a substance-use disorder according to the American Addiction Center. Overcoming drug or alcohol addiction is still an extremely difficult battle to fight. If there was a drug that could help reduce substance cravings, it would change the lives of millions.
Enter semaglutide.
In June 2023 Meg Tirrell of CNN published the story of Cheri Ferguson, a woman who started Ozempic and was able to quit smoking after years of trying due to her reported reduction in cravings. She is not alone in noticing this unusual, yet potentially beneficial side effect of semaglutide. Other news outlets such as Science News, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Psychology Today and NPR have all published articles considering and exploring semaglutide’s possible effects on substance use disorders.
Although this discovery is relatively new, clinical trials are underway to investigate if semaglutide -or other similar drugs- could be used as a substance disorder treatment.
Researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, conducted a trial on male and female rats to see if semaglutide would impact alcohol use and relapse-like alcohol behaviors.
This 2023 study found that the rats who were given doses of semaglutide consumed less alcohol and showed positive behavior changes in relationship to alcohol. An American study following very similar procedures produced the same findings. (Although preclinical trials with rats have often translated into successful human trials, this is far from always the case.) As of April 2024, the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill as well is working on a clinical trial looking at the effects of semaglutide on humans with alcohol-use disorder. UNC is concurrently conducting human trials on semaglutide’s effect on people struggling with tobacco use disorders.
The experiment is set up using the double-blind method where some patients will receive semaglutide, while others will receive a placebo. Researchers are hopeful semaglutide will prove to be a successful cessation drug after seeing successful preclinical trials.
It has been widely reported that ozempic/semaglutide quiets the noise around food and has helped users eat less. Just like drugs and alcohol, food can be an addictive substance — this is coming from a plus-size author who has had numerous battles with a food-obsessed mind. It makes sense that a drug that softens a food addiction could have the potential to offer relief to other addictions. Semaglutide, as a drug, is still in its infancy with new discoveries being made and new questions being posed constantly.
However, the potential is there. Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, the clinical director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, told NPR that the mechanism in the brain that regulates overeating overlaps with those responsible for the development and maintenance of addiction including alcohol disorder.
Through clinical trials, it is known that GLP-1 agonists seem to lower the dopamine levels in the brain that make food enjoyable, which causes food to seem less desirable after the hormones are released. Dopamine plays a large role in addiction, this raises the question if semaglutide affects other Dopamine receptors in the brain.
Is it stimulating the part of the brain that makes smoking weed or vaping enjoyable? Does it quiet the need for a drink? It’s unknown.
Even so, just the thought that there could be a new drug to help combat addiction is huge.
Fewer than 1 in 10 adults successfully quit smoking each year (Mayo Clinic) and relapse rates for alcoholics fall between 40-60% (American Addiction Centers). If semaglutide could truly help alcoholics, smokers, opioid users and more break the cycles of their addictions, well, it would be both life-saving and life-changing for countless people.
I don’t have to tell you that science says smoking, drugs, alcohol, you name it, are bad for us, but the addictive cycle is not easy to break by any means. Help is out there, but you can’t always beat your body’s chemistry and your brain’s scream for substances.
I, for one, am on the edge of my seat, hopeful that semaglutide could answer addicts' prayers for relief.
published XX/XX/2024