People prescribed Ozempic or Wegovy are less likely to develop a cannabis use disorder or relapse from the condition than those who take other diabetes or obesity medications, suggesting that the popular injections may treat cannabis addiction.
Ozempic and Wegovy are brand names for semaglutide, a drug that reduces appetite and regulates blood sugar levels. It is now routinely prescribed to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, and some evidence suggests it eases cravings in substance use disorders, too, like alcoholism or nicotine addiction.
But no study has assessed whether semaglutide affects cannabis use. So, at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Maryland and her colleagues tracked incidences of cannabis use disorder and relapse in people prescribed Ozempic or Wegovy.
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They collected data on more than 85,000 people with obesity in the US using electronic health records. More than 46,000 of the participants were prescribed semaglutide, while the rest used other obesity medications. More than 2000 of the participants had a history of cannabis use disorder.
The researchers tracked how many participants developed a cannabis use disorder or relapsed from the condition within a year of starting medication. After accounting for factors like gender, socioeconomic status and tobacco use, the researchers found that, on average, those prescribed semaglutide were about half as likely to develop a cannabis use disorder as those who were prescribed another obesity medication.
Among the subset of participants previously diagnosed with cannabis use disorder, those taking semaglutide were almost 40 per cent less likely to relapse than those taking other obesity medications. The researchers found a similar result in another cohort of nearly 600,000 people who were being treated for type 2 diabetes.
This suggests semaglutide could potentially treat cannabis use disorder, which affects an estimated 15 million people in the US and lacks effective treatments.
鈥淭his is really promising,鈥� says at the University of Washington in Seattle. However, only clinical trials can establish whether semaglutide prevents or treats the condition, she says. It is also unclear how semaglutide may affect cannabis use. 鈥淚t is probably working in the brain, regulating the pathways involved in the craving or drive to take drugs,鈥� says Ferguson.
Molecular Psychiatry
