Acamprosate Calcium

An analysis of those posts, together with a remote study of individuals with obesity who reported using semaglutide and tirzepatide, found that the drugs decreased cravings and reduced alcohol consumption, according to a new study. In social media posts on the community network Reddit, users reported reduced cravings for alcohol when taking drugs intended to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity. Across a number of threads -- with titles such as "Did scientists accidentally invent an anti-addiction drug?" and "I don't know if this is a side effect but ... Mounjaro makes me drink less!!!!!" -- users reported a changing relationship with beer, wine, and liquor. An analysis of those posts, together with a remote study of individuals with obesity who reported using semaglutide and tirzepatide, found that the drugs decreased cravings and reduced alcohol consumption, according to a study by Virginia Tech researchers published Nov. 28 in Scientific Reports. "These findings add to a growing literature that these medications may curb dangerous drinking habits," said Warren Bickel, Virginia Tech Carilion Behavioral Health Research Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and corresponding author. What they did Scientists with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute's Addiction Recovery Research Center combined two different studies to build on existing research, including studies that showed the drugs were effective in reducing alcohol consumption in animal models. The first was an analysis of more than 68,000 Reddit posts from 2009-23 that included terms linked to GLP-1 approved medications. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 agonist, a class of drugs that reduce blood sugar and energy intake by mimicking the actions of hormones released after eating. Among the keywords included in the search were Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic, and Trulicity. After cleaning the resulting data -- such as eliminating comments with fewer than 100 characters -- the set was narrowed to 33,609 posts from 14,595 unique users. The study was unique in using Reddit to analyze the reported experience of thousands of users. On examining alcohol-related discussions, researchers found that 962 individuals made 1,580 alcohol-related posts. Of those, 71.7 percent addressed reduced cravings, reduced usage, and other negative effects due to drinking. In a second study, 153 participants who self-reported having obesity were recruited from various social media platforms. Roughly a third of these participants represented the control group, a third were taking either a semaglutide injection or tablet, and a third were using tirzepatide. Participants on semaglutide or tirzepatide reported drinking significantly fewer drinks, on average, than those in the control group who were not on any medication for diabetes or weight loss. In addition, researchers found that both the average number of drinks and the odds of binge drinking were found to be significantly lower. Results also found that the stimulative and sedative effects of alcohol intoxication are reduced when taking these medications. "Participants reported drinking less, experienced fewer effects of alcohol when they did drink it, and decreased odds of binge drinking," said Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, assistant professor at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and one of the study's co-authors. Researchers believe theirs is the first published report following tirezepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro, which was approved in 2022 and is used for treatment of Type 2 diabetes and weight loss. Why this matters Case studies and reports in the popular press hint at the drugs' unexpected side effect of reducing addictive behaviors, including the desire to consume alcohol. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only three medications to treat alcohol use disorder: disulfiram, naltrexone, and acamprosate. They have shown only modest success, have poor compliance, and are underprescribed. The authors suggest further randomized controlled trials to explore the therapeutic potential of GLP-1 agonists and GIP/GLP-1 combination drugs to treat alcohol use disorder, which affects 5.9 percent of individuals in the United States ages 12 and older. In addition, the participants identified as mostly white and female, and further studies in more diverse populations are needed to examine sex and race differences. "Although evidence supporting the use of these medications for alcohol use disorder is growing, the field still needs to learn considerably more about them, particularly in identifying the underlying mechanisms. We plan to contribute to that effort," Bickel said. The drugs are a promising development in the study of alcohol use disorder. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicate 15.7 million people in the United States meet the criteria for the chronic, relapsing brain disorder that is a significant contributor to global mortality yet remains one of the most undertreated conditions, Bickel said.

Researchers from Oregon Health & Science University and institutions across the country have identified a pill used to treat a common skin disease as an "incredibly promising" treatment for alcohol use disorder. The study was recently published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. On average, the people who received the medication, called apremilast, reduced their alcohol intake by more than half - from five drinks per day to two. "I've never seen anything like that before," said co-senior author Angela Ozburn, Ph.D., associate professor of behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine and a research biologist with the Portland VA Health Care System. The lead author is Kolter Grigsby, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the Ozburn laboratory at OHSU. Beginning in 2015, Ozburn and collaborators searched a genetic database looking for compounds likely to counteract the expression of genes known to be linked to heavy alcohol use. Apremilast, an FDA-approved anti-inflammatory medication used to treat psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, appeared to be a promising candidate. They then tested it in two unique animal models that have a genetic of risk for excessive drinking, as well as in other strains of mice at laboratories across the country. In each case, apremilast reduced drinking among a variety of models predisposed to mild to heavy alcohol use. They found that apremilast triggered an increase in activity in the nucleus accumbens, the region of the brain involved in controlling alcohol intake. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, then tested apremilast in people. The Scripps team conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical proof-of-concept study involving 51 people who were assessed over 11 days of treatment. "Apremilast's large effect size on reducing drinking, combined with its good tolerability in our participants, suggests it is an excellent candidate for further evaluation as a novel treatment for people with alcohol use disorder," said co-senior author Barbara Mason, Ph.D., Pearson Family professor in the Department of Molecular Medicine at Scripps. The clinical study involved people with alcohol use disorder who weren't seeking any form of treatment, and Mason predicts that apremilast may be even more effective among people who are motivated to reduce their alcohol consumption. "It's imperative for more clinical trials to be done on people seeking treatment," Ozburn said. "In this study, we saw that apremilast worked in mice. It worked in different labs, and it worked in people. This is incredibly promising for treatment of addiction in general." An estimated 95,000 people in the United States die every year from alcohol-related deaths, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Currently, there are three medications approved for alcohol use disorder in the United States: Antabuse, which produces an acute sensitivity akin to a hangover when alcohol is consumed; acamprosate, a medication thought to stabilize chemical signaling in the brain that is associated with relapse; and naltrexone, a medication that blocks the euphoric effects of both alcohol and opioids. Grigsby KB, Mangieri RA, Roberts AJ, Lopez MF, Firsick EJ, Townsley KG, Beneze A, Bess J, Eisenstein TK, Meissler JJ, Light JM, Miller J, Quello S, Shadan F, Skinner MH, Aziz HC, Metten P, Morissett RA, Crabbe JC, Roberto M, Becker HC, Mason BJ, Ozburn AR. Pre-clinical and clinical evidence for suppression of alcohol intake by apremilast. J Clin Invest. 2023 Jan 19:e159103. doi: 10.1172/JCI159103