Semaglutide could scale back opioid overdoses, a brand new research suggests 

Greater than 80,000 folks in america died of opioid overdoses in 2023, so a brand new preventive technique may save lives. However Xu is cautious to level out that the research doesn’t show that the treatment curbs opioid overdoses. “We will solely say semaglutide is related to decreased danger,” she says. 

The findings set the stage for medical trials that straight take a look at semaglutide’s results, Xu provides.

The brand new work is the primary to recommend that the sort of drug may have such a protecting impact in folks, says behavioral neuroscientist Patricia “Sue” Grigson of Penn State Faculty of Medication in Hershey. “And that may be a fairly exceptional discovering.”

Semaglutide belongs to a household of medicine that mimic the intestine hormone GLP-1 (SN: 8/29/23). Initially permitted for diabetes, semaglutide and its family have gained fame — and notoriety — lately as weight-loss medicines (SN: 12/13/23). However proof is stacking up that the medication could do greater than assist folks with diabetes and weight problems — they seem like a form of medicinal Swiss Military knife. 

Research in rats and mice have hinted that semaglutide can curb addictive behaviors (SN: 8/30/23). Early outcomes from Grigson’s crew recommend {that a} associated drug, liraglutide, reduces opioid cravings in folks with opioid use dysfunction (SN: 2/17/24). And a handful of research from Xu’s crew this yr recommend that semaglutide could provide some advantages to folks hooked on alcohol, tobacco and hashish.

For the most recent research, Xu’s crew analyzed digital well being data of greater than 33,000 folks prescribed semaglutide or a handful of different diabetes medicines and counted opioid overdoses over the subsequent yr. Although general numbers had been low, folks prescribed semaglutide had been much less prone to overdose than folks prescribed different medicines. The researchers logged 35 overdoses throughout 2,605 folks on semaglutide, for instance, in contrast with 76 out of two,605 folks on metformin. 

Scientists don’t know why semaglutide could have this protecting impact. It’s potential folks on the treatment crave opioids much less, and easily don’t use as a lot of the medication. That might make them much less prone to overdose, Grigson says. 

In November, Grigson’s crew will start enrolling folks with opioid use dysfunction in a brand new medical trial. Contributors will take semaglutide together with one in every of two normal remedies for the dysfunction, and researchers will observe how the drug combos have an effect on their skill to abstain from opioids. 

And Xu’s crew has now set its sights on stimulants: Maybe semaglutide may assist individuals who use methamphetamines and cocaine. She thinks the treatment could tinker with some underlying organic mechanism that drives drug cravings generally. 

Pharmacoepidemiologist Serena Jingchuan Guo wonders if the drug may in the future be used earlier than dependancy units in, as an example as a part of a ache administration plan for sufferers prescribed opioids for ache reduction after surgical procedure. Maybe taking semaglutide on the identical time may forestall folks from getting hooked on opioids within the first place, suggests Guo, of the College of Florida in Gainesville. 

However she cautions that many questions on semaglutide and its family stay, like what molecular buttons the medication are pushing within the physique to set off its different results. Folks consider it as a “miracle drug,” she says, however “there are such a lot of unknowns.”