Weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, Wigoby, and Munjaro may reduce opioid overdose and alcohol addiction rates in opioid addicts and alcoholics, respectively, according to a new study by three Loyola University Chicago researchers. There is.
the study It was published Friday in the scientific journal Addiction. Researchers found that opioid overdose rates in patients with type 2 diabetes and opioid use disorder (OUD) taking any of the weight-loss drugs mentioned above were higher than in patients with the same two conditions who were not taking weight-loss drugs. They found a 38% decrease in comparison.
This rate was reduced by 33% in OUD patients who were obese and took weight-loss drugs. The study also showed that this value was reduced by 35% in OUD patients who had both type 2 diabetes and obesity and were taking weight-loss drugs.
Rates of alcohol abuse among patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who were prescribed weight loss drugs were reduced by half compared to rates of alcohol abuse among patients who were not prescribed weight loss drugs. This rate was 49% lower in people with AUD who had type 2 diabetes and were taking weight loss medications. There was a 42% reduction in AUD patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes who were taking weight loss drugs. Obese AUD patients also taking weight-loss drugs experienced a similar reduction of 42%.
Weight-loss drugs had a “strong protective association” with alcohol intoxication in people with AUD and opioid overdose in people with OUD, a study showed. (Related: Researchers warn users of popular weight loss drug may go blind in rare cases)
Weight loss and diabetes drugs such as Ozempic and Munjaro could be used in the future to treat drug and alcohol dependence, but more research is needed, according to the first large-scale study. https://t.co/SrRadjIqIi
— POLITOEurope (@POLITOEurope) October 17, 2024
Researchers looked at the databases of 136 US health systems covering more than 100 million patients and approximately 1.7 billion healthcare providers, then studied 503,747 patients with OUD and 81 patients with AUD. The number was decided to be 7,309 people.
Researchers looked at whether weight loss drugs had an impact on opioid and alcohol abuse from January 2014 (around the time the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first approved weight loss drugs) to September 2022.
The gender of the OUD group was almost even (51.1% female, 48.9% male), but 67.7% of the AUD group were male. There were more single patients than married patients in both groups (67% for OUD and 70.8% for AUD).
“Our study… reveals the potential for a new therapeutic pathway in substance use treatment,” the researchers wrote in their paper. However, the researchers said that while the results were “promising”, they needed to prompt “further research, particularly prospective clinical trials, to verify these associations and understand the underlying mechanisms”. I warned you.
Matt Field, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield, told Politico The study showed that while Ozempic may prevent overdose and subsequent hospitalization, it does not help patients reduce their substance intake or may not help them completely abstain from drinking.
OUD affects 6.7 million to 7.6 million people in the United States, while AUD affects approximately 29.5 million people in the United States, the study found.
One in eight U.S. adults, or 12% of the U.S. adult population, takes weight loss medications. Survey results Published in May by Nonprofit KFF is shown. According to surveys, about half of such adults take such drugs.
From August 2021 to August 2023, approximately 40.3% of U.S. adults were obese, only a slight decrease from before. 41.9% from 2017 to March 2020, According to Send it to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
