Ozempic linked to drop in opioid overdose risk: study
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The active ingredient in the popular diabetes and obesity drugs Ozempic and Wegovy could be linked to a drop in opioid overdoses, a study published in JAMA Network Open found.
Why it matters: It's the latest evidence that buzzy drugs known as GLP-1s could be used to address psychiatric disorders, including addiction.
- Anecdotal reports have indicated the drugs are associated with reduced cravings for nicotine and alcohol.
- Previous preliminary studies have indicated they might also cut the desire for opioids.
The big picture: There is an urgent need for new drugs to address America's opioid crisis — medications for opioid use disorder reach only one-quarter of individuals affected and roughly half of those people discontinue them within six months.
What they found: Researchers, led by Case Western Reserve University and the National Institutes of Health, looked at de-identified electronic health records to examine the opioid overdose risk of patients taking GLP-1s with the active ingredient semaglutide versus other diabetic medications, such as insulin or metformin.
- They also compared opioid overdose risk of patients on semaglutide to patients on other GLP-1s used for diabetes like liraglutide, the active ingredient in Novo's Victoza.
- The study included about 33,000 patients with Type 2 diabetes who had both opioid use disorder and another co-morbidity like heart disease or obesity.
- Semaglutide was associated with a significantly lower risk of opioid overdose during a one-year follow-up compared with other anti-diabetic medications, including other GLP-1s.
Yes, but: The authors acknowledged the study may be limited by potential biases inherent in EHR-based observational studies, such as missing or inaccurate data, saying the results need further validation.
- Randomized clinical trials are needed "to investigate the potential role that GLP-1 drugs could play in both treating addiction and, in the process, reducing the risk of overdose," Nora Volkow, co-author and director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement.
