Anecdotal reports suggest that people who are taking weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy say they suddenly find it easier to turn down an extra drink on a night out. But does research align with these stories? Do these weight loss drugs cause people to reduce their alcohol consumption?
Although more research is needed, evidence is mounting that GLP-1 receptor agonists — a class of drugs that includes semaglutide (brand names Ozempic and Wegovy) and liraglutide (Saxenda) — do seem to reduce alcohol consumption, and researchers are hopeful that these drugs could help curb problematic drinking.
This research is still in its early phases, and scientists still don’t understand how these drugs might act on the brain to reduce alcohol consumption. But more than a dozen clinical trials are underway to answer these questions.
“This is a field that’s moved really quickly in the last couple of years and will probably move even more quickly in the next two years,” said Christian Hendershot, director of clinical research at the University of Southern California Institute for Addiction Science.
How alcohol use changes the brain
Alcohol is addictive and contributes to 2.6 million deaths globally each year, in part by increasing the incidence of heart disease and cancer.
“In my opinion, there’s no safe quantity for alcohol,” Dr. Maurice O’Farrell, an obesity researcher and founder of the Medication Weight Loss Clinic in Dublin, told Live Science. “If you drink regularly, it’s like smoking regularly.”
And many people develop alcohol use disorder (AUD), a medical condition defined by continued drinking despite negative consequences.
When this occurs, alcohol’s effects, such as feelings of pleasure or the numbing of bad feelings, spur the brain to release the chemical dopamine to the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center. This strengthens the motivation to drink. Over time, the decision changes from being a conscious choice, processed in the prefrontal cortex, to a habit governed by the basal ganglia, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
“If you superfeed that limbic system,” the part of the brain that seeks instant gratification, “it becomes so strong, it essentially enslaves your frontal cortex,” which controls higher-order cognitive functions like planning, decision-making and self-control, O’Farrell said.
GLP-1 receptor agonists work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1), which acts in the brain to promote feelings of fullness after eating. So it’s plausible that these drugs are also affecting the brain in ways that could influence alcohol consumption, experts told Live Science.
Weight loss drugs show promise
But only a handful of human trials have looked at the effects of these drugs on alcohol use. For example, research presented at the 32nd European Congress on Obesity in Spain in May showed that semaglutide cut weekly drinks in 179 people with overweight or obesity who consumed more than 10 units of alcohol a week, or the equivalent of five beers per week. Among regular drinkers, the study found, their drinking dropped from about 23 units to about eight units per week — an over 65% reduction.
But the study didn’t randomly assign people to take a placebo or a weight loss drug, so factors other than the weight loss drugs may have caused the participants to drink less. In addition, the research relied on people’s estimates of their own drinking, which can be unreliable, so more rigorous trials are needed.
In another study, published earlier this year in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, researchers reported the results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, which can do a better job of telling researchers whether the weight loss drugs are playing a role in how much alcohol people drink. In the trial, 48 adults with AUD who were not seeking treatment received weekly injections of semaglutide and were assessed in a laboratory setting.
In lab tests, people taking semaglutide drank less alcohol — and said they felt fewer cravings — than the people who were given a placebo. Although the medication didn’t reduce how often people drank, it lowered the amount they said they drank in each sitting.
“It’s interesting that we saw these reductions in people who are not trying to reduce their drinking,” Henderson said.
How does it work?
Although research on the topic in humans is still limited, “there’s a fairly extensive history of animal research showing that GLP-1 receptor agonists can reduce alcohol intake,” Henderson said.
A 2023 study in rodents published in the journal eBioMedicine found that semaglutide blocked alcohol-induced dopamine release in the brain. This could mean that the drugs act by preventing alcohol from overwhelming the limbic system, and thus dampen the rewards the brain feels after drinking alcohol, the study suggests. And indeed, the animals drank less alcohol when given semaglutide. Alcohol also affects inhibitory brain cells, which help regulate impulse control. GLP-1 drugs may help counteract some of these effects, according to a 2023 study on rats published in the journal JCI Insight.
However, humans are much more complex than rodents. And while scientists are learning more about the underlying mechanisms of action for GLP-1 drugs, it may be some time before researchers fully understand how these drugs work, Dr. Michael Weaver, a professor of psychiatry and the medical director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Research on Addictions at UTHealth Houston, told Live Science.
If you are prescribed these drugs for approved conditions like diabetes, obesity or heart disease, reduced alcohol cravings may be a welcome perk, O’Farrell said, but it’s still too early to recommend GLP-1 drugs solely for alcohol use disorder.
“We have medications [for AUD] that are available and known to work,” Weaver said, referring to drugs like naltrexone, acamprosate and disulfiram. “Help is readily available. You don’t have to wait for a miracle drug.”
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
