Ozempic may help control opioid addiction: study
People with a history of opium abuse have used Novo Nordisk A/S’ Ozempic is less likely to cause an overdose, according to a study, adding to growing evidence that the drug can help control addiction.
Patients taking semaglutide, the main ingredient in Novo’s diabetes drug Ozempic and weight-loss injection Wegovy, were half as likely to overdose as those taking insulin, the study found. learn published Wednesday in JAMA Network Open. People taking semaglutide were 63% less likely to overdose than people taking DPP-4 inhibitors, a widely used diabetes pill.
The decline is significant, he said. Dung Hua professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University, who led the study. Her team previously link semaglutide to reduce both alcohol use disorder And smokeXu said this is the first time a study of this size has looked at opioid overdoses.
As the use of powerful new weight-loss drugs spreads, there is growing concern about whether these drugs can reduce not only appetite but also cravings for other substances. While drugmakers remain reluctant to venture into this area, Novo is looking into alcohol consumption in a test starting this year.
The Case Western study used medical records to create a database of patients with similar characteristics and followed them for a year to see if they needed medical attention for an overdose. The study included people with opioid use disorder, without being able to adjust whether they were active addicts, Xu said. All of the patients also had type 2 diabetes, and about two-thirds were obese.
The reduced risk with semaglutide remains true when compared with most other diabetes drugs, including older drugs that work similarly to Ozempic, except Eli Lilly & Co. Trulicity. The researchers did not compare Novo with Lilly’s newer diabetes injection, Mounjaro.
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