Emails are serviced by Constant Contact<\/a><\/p>\nHere\u2019s what you need to know about the new research published by The BMJ:<\/p>\n
How the study was designed<\/p>\n
Previous studies have suggested that the drugs known as GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, could reduce addictions by targeting the brain’s reward pathways. But those studies have been small and often limited to one substance.<\/p>\n
For this study, one of the largest to date, Al-Aly and his colleagues analyzed data from the electronic records of more than 600,000 Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes over three years. They compared people who received GLP-1 drugs with those treated with medications that lower blood sugar.<\/p>\n
The patients were divided into seven parallel trials that analyzed the risk of developing addictions to multiple substances including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, nicotine and opioids. Another trial looked at the risk of specific harms among people with existing addictions when they took the different types of medication.<\/p>\n
What the researchers found<\/p>\n
Al-Aly and his colleagues found that people starting the GLP-1 drugs had lower risks of developing addiction to multiple substances. Compared with the other medications, people taking the GLP-1 drugs had a reduced risk for addiction: 18% for alcohol, 14% for cannabis, 20% for both cocaine and nicotine, and 25% for opioids.<\/p>\n
In patients who already had substance use disorders, starting the GLP-1s was linked with a 31% lower risk of emergency department visits, 26% lower risk of hospitalizations, 25% lower risk of suicidal thoughts or attempts, 39% lower risk of overdose \u2014 and 50% lower risk of death.<\/p>\n
Overall, the study found that using GLP-1 drugs likely prevented about seven cases of substance use disorder and 12 incidents involving serious harm for every 1,000 users over three years, Al-Aly said.<\/p>\n
The limits of the study<\/p>\n
Among the study’s limitations: It was conducted within the VA health system, which serves a population that is mostly older, white and male, although Al-Aly said the results were consistent in more than 35,000 women. It also includes data only from people with diabetes, not the general population.<\/p>\n
The researchers also couldn’t account for some factors, such as socioeconomic status or lifestyle choices, that could affect the results. And the analysis focuses on the effects of using GLP-1s compared with another drug, not compared with no treatment.<\/p>\n
As an observational study, the new analysis showed that the GLP-1s are associated with reduced risk of substance use disorders and harms, not that the drugs themselves caused the reduction.<\/p>\n
Addiction researchers see a need for new medications<\/p>\n
The new findings are striking, said Dr. Lorenzo Leggio, a National Institute on Drug Abuse clinical director who wasn’t involved in the study.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though we don’t fully understand the mechanism, somehow the GLP-1 system is tackling addiction biology and the foundational system that underlies all these disorders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Diabetes and weight-loss trials have shown that the GLP-1 drugs target hormones in the gut and the brain that control appetite and feelings of fullness, cutting down on what’s described as \u201cfood noise,\u201d or intrusive thoughts of food. In the same way, this study indicates the drugs may tamp down \u201calcohol or drug noise,\u201d Leggio said.<\/p>\n
Growing evidence that GLP-1s might prevent substance use disorders is exciting, said Dr. Anna Lembke, a Stanford University addiction medicine specialist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven’t really had a new tool in our toolbox from a pharmacotherapy perspective to treat addiction in a long time,\u201d said Lembke, noting that some addiction specialists are already prescribing GLP-1s off-label, especially when other treatments have failed.<\/p>\n
She cautioned that the GLP-1 drugs\u00a0don’t work the same way<\/a>\u00a0for all users and that they have risks that must be weighed against potential benefits.<\/p>\nWhat comes next<\/p>\n
The new findings do not, by themselves, justify prescribing GLP-1 drugs to prevent or treat substance use disorders, Al-Aly said. That evidence would need to come from randomized controlled clinical trials that directly compare the use of the drugs against a placebo, or dummy medication. Several such trials are pending, Leggio noted.<\/p>\n
The goal is finding a new way to treat addictions, which are a leading cause of sickness and death around the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe consequence in terms of chronic disease of these addictive drugs is actually gigantic in our society,\u201d Leggio said.<\/p>\n
What do you think of this article?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The blockbuster GLP-1 drugs that have reshaped the treatment of diabetes and obesity may help prevent multiple substance…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[49,48,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-522145","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}