The study involved 48 men and women who were given either ozempic or a placebo for nine weeks. The researchers aimed to assess how alcohol cravings would change over the course of the experiment. A week before treatment, the participants were offered alcoholic beverages and could refuse alcohol at any time. Every day throughout the experiment, the volunteers recorded the amount and type of alcohol they drank, as well as the number of cigarettes they smoked. The findings were published on the University of Southern California website.
Ozempic was administered at the lowest dose, but even so, it proved more effective than other anti-alcoholism medications. In the first month of the experiment, alcohol cravings decreased by 30% (2% in the placebo group), and by the second month, almost 40% of participants reported no longer drinking large amounts of alcohol. Notably, the effect also affected smoking, although to a lesser extent.
"The initial findings are very promising, but longer-term studies with a larger sample of participants are needed. It is important to evaluate the long-term effects and safety," the authors stated.
It's worth clarifying that self-prescribing Ozempic without consulting a doctor is contraindicated. This drug and its analogs have numerous other positive side effects, such as a reduced risk of dementia and heart failure, but they also have negative ones, such as sudden vision loss, vascular pathologies, and others.
