The famous GLP-1 receptor agonistsamong which some protagonists such as Ozempic stand out, have revolutionized the treatment of type 2 diabetes and of obesity. However, for some time patients and doctors had been reporting a “side effect” that was as surprising as it was hopeful, since it was seen that this treatment made people not feel like drinking alcohol or smoking.
New routes. What began as a trickle of anecdotes in doctors’ offices has ended up being the target of study by different research teams who have seen here a new way of understanding the mechanism of addictions in humans. Now, a recent study published in B.M.J. backed by new clinical trialssuggests that these medications could be the key to treating addictive substance use disorders.
How it looked. The heavyweight of this new research is a gigantic cohort study published in 2026, where the data of 606,434 United States veterans with type 2 diabetes. Here it was divided into two groups: those who started treatment with GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic and those who took SGLT2 inhibitorswhich is one of the accepted treatments for advanced type 2 diabetes.
The results. But the most shocking data came when analyzing patients who already had a previous history of addictions. In this group, the use of Ozempic resulted in a dramatic decrease in addiction problems requiring urgent treatment, but also saw a lower rate of hospital admissions, lower drug-related mortality, a drop in overdoses, and even a significant reduction in suicidal ideation and attempts.
The essays. Although observational studies are very valuable, they also you have to go to the laboratory to see what is happening. Here, a 2025 randomized trial demonstrated that taking Ozempic dramatically reduced alcohol self-administration in a laboratory setting. Here patients reported less anxiety about having to have a drink or a cigarette, fewer days of heavy consumption, and incidentally, a decrease in the number of cigarettes they smoked per day.
In the past, a study published in 2022 showed that using exenatide it was not possible to generally reduce the days of consumption of these drugs, but it was possible to see how the drug had a direct effect on some specific parts of the brain that are related to the reward centers.
Because? That a drug designed for the pancreas affects our relationship with alcohol and tobacco, the truth is that it can raise many questions. The answer lies in the brain, since some reviews suggest that GLP-1 receptors not only regulate blood sugar or slow down gastric emptying.
These receptors are also found in key brain areas that control the dopamine pathway, which is why, by activating them, drugs such as emaglutide or liraglutide attenuate the sensation of reward. In rodents, for example, they block the reinforcement produced by substances such as cocaine, opioids or nicotine and, basically, the drug stops “feeling good.”
A paradigm shift. As can be seen every day, constant drug use over time can have devastating consequences for the lives of people and those around them. The problem is that right now there are few approved pharmacological therapies to support these addicts, and this makes any clue to have a new therapeutic door welcome.
Although more research and large-scale Phase III trials are needed for regulatory agencies to officially approve their psychiatric use, GLP-1 drugs appear to be doing something that medicine has been seeking for decades: “satiating” not only physical hunger, but also the brain’s chemical hunger.
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