"Her father had recently married a Danish woman and moved the family to Denmark, which has one of the highest teen-drinking rates in Europe. (Sixteen-year-olds are allowed to buy beer.) As Mary got older, her alcohol consumption accelerated-she could drink eighteen beers in a sitting-and a cycle of inebriation and hangovers blurred her days. She tried rehab, Alcoholics Anonymous, and a medication called Antabuse, which provokes nausea in combination with alcohol. None of them worked for her."
""If I have more than two beers now, I go outside and barf," the friend said. Mary was perplexed. Ozempic, or semaglutide, originated as a diabetes medicine; more recently, as an obesity treatment, it has made its manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, one of Europe's most valuable companies. What did it have to do with drinking? The next day, Mary saw an advertisement on Facebook: a nearby clinical trial was studying semaglutide's effects on alcohol addiction. She enrolled."
GLP-1 drugs, including semaglutide, have shown effects that helped some people curb drug and alcohol use and could enable moderation. Mary began heavy drinking in her early teens after moving to Denmark, escalating to severe binges despite rehab, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Antabuse. A friend taking Ozempic reported vomiting after more than two beers, linking semaglutide to reduced alcohol tolerance. Semaglutide originated as a diabetes drug and later became an obesity treatment that boosted its manufacturer's value. Mary enrolled in a blinded clinical trial testing semaglutide for alcohol addiction, receiving weekly injections without knowing if she had the drug or placebo.
Read at The New Yorker
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