Skip to main content

Semaglutide Cuts Incidence, Recurrence of Alcohol Use Disorder

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, BPharm. Last updated on June 25, 2024.

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 25, 2024 -- Semaglutide may cut incidence and recurrence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in patients with obesity, according to a study published online May 28 in Nature Communications.

William Wang, from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, and colleagues used electronic health records of 83,825 patients with obesity to examine associations between AUD and semaglutide use.

The researchers found that compared with other antiobesity medications, semaglutide was associated with a 50 to 56 percent lower risk for both the incidence and recurrence of AUD over a 12-month follow-up period. Across gender, age group, race, and in patients with and without type 2 diabetes (T2DM), similar associations were seen. An additional study population of 598,803 patients with T2DM showed similar results.

"In summary, our results find an association between reduced risk for incident and AUD relapse with the prescription of semaglutide in patients with obesity or T2DM," the authors write. "While these findings provide preliminary evidence of the potential benefit of semaglutide in AUD in real-world populations further randomized clinical trials are needed to support its use clinically for AUD."

Abstract/Full Text

Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Posted June 2024

Read this next

Low Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment Rates Seen in Cancer Survivors

THURSDAY, May 29, 2025 -- For U.S. adult cancer survivors with a new alcohol use disorder (AUD) diagnosis, the one-year cumulative incidence of AUD treatment initiation was 14.3...

Half of Youth-Serving Clinicians Screen for Substance Use Disorder at Every Well Visit

THURSDAY, May 22, 2025 -- Just over half of youth-serving clinicians report that they routinely screen adolescents for substance use disorders (SUDs) at every well visit...

Semaglutide May Reduce Craving in Alcohol Use Disorder

FRIDAY, Feb. 28, 2025 -- Low-dose semaglutide seems to reduce craving and certain drinking outcomes in alcohol use disorder (AUD), according to a study published online Feb. 12 in...

More news resources

Subscribe to our newsletter

Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.