"Could he be right? I think so, but partly because it doesn't take much to clear a low bar-there haven't been many exciting drugs for alcohol addiction. The last one was approved twenty years ago, and it was really just an injectable version of a medication that first came on the market during the Reagan Administration. Meanwhile, alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. have roughly doubled in those decades."
"Originally created to help manage diabetes, and then employed as an obesity treatment-some users reported that it quieted the "food noise" in their heads-GLP-1s may also be able to help curb addiction cravings. For a piece in this week's issue, Dhruv Khullar, a practicing physician and a New Yorker contributing writer covering health care, investigated whether the drug can deliver on that promise. We recently spoke about his reporting."
GLP-1 medications, developed for diabetes and later used for obesity, have been reported to reduce intrusive "food noise" and may also suppress addiction cravings. Early clinical and anecdotal evidence suggests potential benefit for alcohol-use disorder, with several trials currently underway and accumulating supportive data. The comparison to Prozac reflects both possible therapeutic impact and a shift in societal understanding of addiction. Few effective medications for alcohol addiction exist, with the last notable approval two decades ago, while alcohol-related deaths have roughly doubled. GLP-1s appear to act on brain circuits involved in reward, offering a novel biological approach to addiction treatment. Further research is needed to confirm efficacy and safety.
Read at The New Yorker
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]