Semaglutide Cuts Incidence, Recurrence of Alcohol Use Disorder

Findings show risk cut in half based on electronic health record data

By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, June 25, 2024 (HealthDay News) — 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.”