For 150 Years We’ve Sought a Cure For Addiction

AND STILL DO –

July 11, 2023 – The key, it seems, may be the new diabetes drug, Ozempic. While doctors and pharmaceutical companies hail it as a powerful new weight loss drug, early reports also suggest that GLP-1 analogue drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro may suppress a variety of other appetites, from smoking and alcohol to shopping and nail-biting.

GLP-1 analogues were developed to control diabetes by triggering insulin secretion from the pancreas. Some evidence suggests these drugs also affect the brain’s dopamine pathways, which appear so significant in rewarding our behavior that some neuroscientists have labeled it the “wanting” system. The hope is that GLP-1 analogues might target this wanting system directly, eliminating or reducing cravings — including those associated with addiction. Are we around the corner from a major advance in the science of desire?

Not so fast. The history of many failed attempts to generate a reliable biological treatment for thorny problems like addiction should caution us against anticipating another magic bullet. Explaining desire through simple biology fails to grasp the variety of motivations for drug-taking, and previous medical fixations on extinguishing “cravings” alone typically did more harm than good.