Losing Weight With Ozempic Might Also Lighten Your Bar Tab, Study Finds

Losing weight with Ozempic and similar drugs might have another unexpected benefit: a lighter bar tab. New research published today has found evidence that people taking these drugs often cut down their alcohol use, too.

The researchers studied participants who enrolled in a Weight Watchers program and were given one of several anti-obesity medications, including second-generation GLP-1 medications like semaglutide (the active ingredient in the drugs Wegovy and Ozempic). Of the people who regularly drank alcohol before the program, the researchers found, about half reduced their consumption after it began. The findings are the latest to support the idea that these already breakthrough drugs could also be turned into treatments for substance use disorders.

Semaglutide and other newer GLP-1 drugs have proven to be far more effective at helping people lose weight than diet and exercise alone. But researchers have also started to study whether these drugs can tamp down people’s cravings for potentially harmful substances like opioids or alcohol. The evidence for this effect is still preliminary, however, and has largely come from animal studies, people’s personal anecdotes, and small studies of GLP-1 users.

Scientists affiliated with Weight Watchers have also noticed reports of reduced alcohol use from their participants, so they collaborated with others to design a groundbreaking study capable of reliably tracking people both before and after they began taking these medications.

“This was different from past research in that we included a variety of anti-obesity medications (metformin, bupropion/naltrexone, first-generation GLP-1s, and second-generation GLP-1s) and looked at changes in alcohol use before and after initiation of an anti-obesity medication, whereas other work has not looked at pre- and post-changes and have primarily looked at those with substance use disorders,” lead researcher Lisa Miller-Matero, the associate director of Health Services Research at Henry Ford Health, told Gizmodo in an email.

Matero and her team studied the outcomes of over 14,000 WW participants who enrolled in a telemedicine weight loss program, most of whom (86%) were taking semaglutide or tirzepatide (the active ingredient in the drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound).

About half of the participants reported drinking alcohol before they started the program. And of these participants, 45% reported drinking less afterward. This reduction was seen across all groups of anti-obesity medications, though those taking bupropion/naltrexone were the most likely to report drinking less (after the researchers adjusted for the amount of weight lost, however, the difference between the treatments was no longer significant). The team’s findings were published Tuesday in the journal Jama Network Open.

“What is also exciting was that those who were drinking at moderate or heavy levels had a greater likelihood of reducing alcohol use,” Miller-Matero said.

These drugs work to treat obesity in different ways, and the same is likely true for how they affect people’s alcohol use. While naltrexone is known to decrease cravings for alcohol, for instance, GLP-1s might weaken the rewarding effect people feel from drinking alcohol, similar to their effect on food. The researchers were surprised that even people taking metformin (an older diabetes drug used to treat obesity) tended to drink less, since past research hasn’t suggested that it reduces alcohol use. This reduction seen among metformin users may have been tied to the actual weight loss program itself, the researchers speculate. People trying to lose weight are often encouraged to limit their alcohol use as a way to reduce calories and avoid unhealthy meal choices, and those taking part in these programs are especially motivated to change their behaviors.

Naltrexone is already approved to treat alcohol use disorder, so it’s certainly possible that GLP-1 drugs could see a second life as addiction treatments as well. But it will take further research to know for sure, the researchers say.

“I think it’s a bit early to make recommendations about using these for the treatment of substance use disorders, but I do think this work is promising and suggests that medications to treat obesity could possibly also have an impact on reducing substance use,” Miller-Matero said. “These findings warrant further research into the use of anti-obesity medications, including GLP-1 RAs, for reducing alcohol use.”

For her part, Miller-Matero would very much like to continue exploring the potential of these drugs for treating alcohol use disorder. Future studies could test these medications in randomized trials that include people in weight loss programs not taking medication as a sort of control, she suggests. This approach would make it easier to determine whether the medications themselves are driving reduced alcohol use, rather than the effects of simply being in a weight loss program.

Scientists elsewhere have started to conduct small trials directly testing whether semaglutide can treat people’s alcohol use disorder.

“Identifying mechanisms for why these medications reduce alcohol use would also be very helpful,” she added.