WEDNESDAY, Nov. 13, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- The blockbuster GLP-1 drug semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) could curb drinking for people battling alcohol use disorder, helping them to avoid crises that require hospitalization, new research shows.

Numerous studies had already hinted that semaglutide might act on appetite centers in the brain to suppress the urge to drink, just as it does the urge to overeat.

Now, researchers in Finland say their nearly nine-year study of almost 228,000 Swedish people with alcohol use disorder who were taking semaglutide had a 36% lower odds of requiring hospitalization.

Use of a second drug in the same class of GLP-1 medications, liraglutide (Victoza), was linked to a 28% reduction in hospitalizations, the team reported Nov. 13 in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

The study couldn't prove cause and effect, only associations. However, based on these and prior findings, the researchers say that "clinical trials are urgently needed to confirm these findings."

The research was led by Dr. Markku Lähteenvuo, of the University of Eastern Finland.

Besides the finding that both semaglutide and liraglutide appeared to help keep people with alcohol use disorder out of the hospital, the study also found that semaglutide, in particular, was linked to a decreased risk for suicide.

The researchers also noted that the two GLP-1 drugs appeared to outperform standard anti-alcoholism medications, such as naltrexone, disulfiram and acamprostate, in lowering hospitalizations among people with alcohol use disorder, although better studies are needed to confirm that.

The Finnish group noted that better treatments for alcohol use disorder are desperately needed, "because existing treatments may not be suitable for all patients."

More information

Find out more about treatments for alcohol use disorder at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

SOURCE: JAMA Psychiatry, Nov. 13, 2024