Cutting-edge weight-loss drugs like Ozempic/Wegovy can cut alcohol intake dramatically in a short amount of time, a new study says.

People taking semaglutide or liraglutide reduced their alcohol consumption by two-thirds within four months, according to results recently published in the journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.

These glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs mimic the GLP-1 hormone, which helps control insulin and blood sugar levels, decreases appetite and slows digestion of food.

GLP-1 drugs achieve some of these effects by directly affecting the brain’s cravings for food, and that might also extend to cravings for alcohol, said senior researcher Dr. Carel le Roux, chair of experimental pathology at University College Dublin in Ireland.

“Thus, patients report the effects are ‘effortless’,” allowing them to cut drinking with little conscious effort, Le Roux said in a news release.

Drinking accounts for nearly 5% of deaths worldwide, researchers noted. Treatments for problem drinking can be very successful in the short-term but about 70% of patients relapse within a year.

Early animal studies have indicated that GLP-1 drugs can help cut alcohol cravings, but studies involving humans are only starting to emerge, researchers said.

For this study, researchers tracked the health of 262 people who were clinically overweight or obese and being treated for excess weight at a Dublin clinic. All the patients had been prescribed either semaglutide or liraglutide for weight loss.

About 12% never drank; 20% drank rarely; and 68% drank regularly, researchers said.

Among regular drinkers, alcohol intake decreased by 68% within four months of starting GLP-1 drugs, results show. Researchers said that’s comparable to results from nalmefene, a drug used to treat alcoholism in Europe.

“GLP-1 analogues have been shown treat obesity and reduce the risk of multiple obesity-related complications,” Le Roux said. “Now, the beneficial effects beyond obesity, such as on alcohol intake, are being actively studied, with some promising results.”

However, researchers noted that the study involved a small number of patients and did not compare them against a control group not taking GLP-1 drugs. 

Along with earlier publication of the findings, researchers presented them Friday at a meeting of the European Association for the Study of Obesity in Malaga, Spain.