A new $13.3 million study in Pittsburgh will research whether GLP-1 drugs can reduce alcohol and opioid abuse \u2013 as well as a host of other social ills, including crime, unemployment and homelessness.<\/p>\n
GLP-1s have long been used to treat diabetes and more recently as a means to treat obesity and weight loss. They have also shown signs of reducing other cravings, including for drugs and alcohol.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s already a lot of research that GLP-1s can help with addiction and we are building on that research,\u201d said Diana Mart\u00ednez Heredia, a data scientist with Allegheny County\u2019s Department of Human Services, who is helping to lead the study.<\/p>\n
The study will recruit 1,200 residents over the course of two years, starting in 2027, from four different sites in Allegheny County. Half of them will receive a weekly GLP-1 injection and half a placebo. The participants will otherwise continue with any other treatments they are receiving, according to the study\u2019s authors.<\/p>\n
This is a much larger trial than some of the early studies that looked into the impact of GLP-1s on addiction, according to Antoine Douaihy, who leads the addiction medicine program at the University of Pittsburgh\u2019s School of Medicine and UPMC\u2019s Western Psychiatric Hospital. Douaihy said he will oversee the study\u2019s four sites.<\/p>\n
The previous research on GLP-1s\u2019 effects on addiction, Douaihy said, is limited. One half-year study included only 88 participants<\/a>; another nine-week study had fewer than 50<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey are small studies,\u201d Douaihy said. \u201cTheir designs are methodologically not very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n By partnering with Allegheny County, Douaihy said, the new study will also look at whether any reduction in alcohol or opioid use also helps people stay employed, find housing and avoid jail, according to Mart\u00ednez Heredia. \u201dMost of these trials are looking just at substance use and whether people use less or not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The study is being administered by the Center for Addiction, Science, Policy and Research, a nonprofit focused on improving addiction treatment. Nicholas Reville, the executive director, said the secondary impacts of GLP-1s could have implications beyond the physical and mental health benefits for people struggling with addiction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe downstream effects are even larger,\u201d he said. \u201cThe crime, kids being put into foster care, employment loss, tax revenue, incarceration. If you want to really transform society, if you can solve addiction, it would change everything.\u201d<\/p>\n