Recent studies in mice and rats suggest that semaglutide drugs, like Wegovy, can curb some addictions. Several human trials are underway.
Mice on semaglutide also drank less sweet nonalcoholic liquids and unsweetened calorie-rich liquids. That general dampening of consumption wasn’t a surprise, “because this medication is approved already for obesity, for its ability to reduce appetite and food intake,” says Leggio, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Baltimore.
Usually, when a rat is looking for a drug, nerve cells in two areas of its brain are active: the outer layer of the nucleus accumbens, which is involved with rewards, and the locus coeruleus, which is involved with withdrawal. That’s not the case for rats on liraglutide that were seeking fentanyl. In these rats, liraglutide seemed to reduce activity in both brain regions, the researchers found.
Although he sees the promise, he’s also been working in the field of addiction long enough to know that some ideas just don’t pan out. “This will not be the first time that we were feeling strongly about something, and we were not correct,” Leggio says. “If we already knew that semaglutide worked, there would be no reason to do the clinical trials.”
While researchers have some clues about how GLP-1 and its copycats work, scientists don’t know the full details of how nerve cells, and the brain networks they form, are affected. There are still lots of basic questions, including whether semaglutide and its relatives get directly into the brain or exert their effects from other parts of the body.
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