GAME CHANGER? –
Mar. 4, 2026 – The new results suggest — but don’t prove — that the weight-loss medications may be able to target the underlying source of cravings that affect the more than 48 million Americans with substance use disorders. “They’re actually working against the root cause of all these different addictions,” said Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly,- Previous studies have suggested that the drugs known as GLP-1s, or glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, could reduce addictions by targeting the brain’s reward pathways. But those studies have been small and often limited to one substance.
For this study, one of the largest to date, Al-Aly and his colleagues analyzed data from the electronic records of more than 600,000 Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes over three years. They compared people who received GLP-1 drugs with those treated with medications that lower blood sugar.
The patients were divided into seven parallel trials that analyzed the risk of developing addictions to multiple substances including alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, nicotine and opioids. Another trial looked at the risk of specific harms among people with existing addictions when they took the different types of medication.
