Name: Do drugs like Ozempic kill your desire for more than just food?
Uploaded: 2025-11-07T01:51:19.180Z
Duration: 5 min
Description: Beyond weight loss and diabetes treatment, GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have shown some early potential to treat drug and alcohol addiction. For The National, CBC’s Jennifer Yoon breaks down what the latest research reveals, and what scientists are still trying to figure out.

Beyond weight loss and diabetes treatment, GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have shown some early potential to treat drug and alcohol addiction. For The National, CBC’s Jennifer Yoon breaks down what the latest research reveals, and what scientists are still trying to figure out.

Toronto

Recent studies and patient reports indicate that GLP-1 receptor agonists, including Ozempic, may reduce cravings not only for food but also for alcohol, nicotine, and other substances. Individuals taking these medications have reported a diminished desire for alcohol and other vices, with researchers observing similar trends in clinical data.

While the early findings are promising, experts emphasize that the mechanisms behind these effects are not fully understood and that more rigorous, long-term studies are necessary. Researchers also highlight potential side effects and caution that these drugs might reduce motivation for healthy activities, underscoring the need for further investigation.

Do drugs like Ozempic kill your desire for more than just food?

This is a can I've had now for four years on the shelf and that wouldn't have happened in the past. On average, Mike McCluskey says he used to drink between four to five drinks a night, sometimes up to ten. But all that changed when he started taking lozempic for weight loss. Along with 110 pounds, he lost his appetite for alcohol. There's no desire. That's just it. There's no desire. Like there's never like, gee whiz, I should have a beer. No, it just doesn't even enter my mind. He's not alone. You may have heard this before. It's so crazy. Like, I no longer get that desire to want to go get a margarita. It appears that these medications also help reduce cravings for alcohol, nicotine, even opioids. My husband didn't want to drink anymore. Researchers sifting through past patient data have found people taking drugs like lozempic, GLP-1 receptor agonists, tend to take less of all kinds of vices. Alcohol, cannabis, opioids, even things like caffeine consumption and compulsive shopping tend to decrease. But they're not sure what exactly is happening and they're working on solving that puzzle. Some here in Canada. So is lozempic an anti-desire drug? What do we know and what don't we know? One thing we know, these drugs have an impact on our brains. To get to the bottom of this, we need to understand how desire works in the brain. And for that, we need to talk about dopamine. It's a neurotransmitter that gets released when you do something that feels good, like eating a bite of this cake. That dopamine release is essentially telling me that felt great, do it again. And it's giving me a surge of motivation to repeat the action. That system, the reward system, is what researchers think is being affected by drugs like lozempic. This researcher just finished a phase 2 clinical trial looking at how GLP-1s affect this reward system. He's having me do the same cognitive test he gave to 72 study participants. Some on a GLP-1, others on a placebo. He's measuring how much energy I'm using as I follow complicated directions. Do you want to do something hard and potentially gain more, or do you want to do something easy and earn less? The question, how hard are you willing to work for a cash prize? And does that change when you take GLP-1s? He's studying this in those with depression who suffer from low energy and motivation. We need to understand better what drives these problems with motivation in people with depression and we need better treatments for it. He thinks his findings could be helpful to understand what GLP-1s do to our brains more generally. That could also help treat addiction. How central is motivation in addiction? It's critical. So this is our bar laboratory. If GLP-1s target motivation, desire and pleasure, that could make it a game changer, says this addictions researcher. Addiction is complicated and that's why the existing medications we have are generally drug specific. So opioid drugs for opioid use disorder, nicotine drugs for tobacco use disorder. What's really exciting about these GLP-1 agonists is that they seem to be helpful for a variety of substance use disorders. To know if GLP-1s could help treat addiction, we need good randomized controlled trials. But there are very few testing that link so far. The hype is outpacing the evidence. In one recent study, researchers at the University of Southern California gave heavy drinkers a choice. Take a drink at a fake bar that's actually a research lab or get some cash. Researchers also kept track of how much people were drinking at home. Comparing a group of people on the GLP-1 in Ozempic to another group on a placebo. People who were taking somaglutide reported reductions in their weekly alcohol craving relative to placebo. And we also found that the medication group reported reductions in quantity consumed per drinking day. And while the emerging data is promising, researchers are hungry for long-term data to make sure these drugs are effective and won't cause harm. There are receptors in the brain. This psychiatrist says there are already several studies proposed at the Center for Addiction and Mental Health looking at GLP-1s for nicotine and alcohol use disorders. Just making sure that we have the solid evidence base to understand not just that they work, but how they work and the potential side effects. Some side effects are already well known. Nausea, diarrhea, stomach pain, constipation, vomiting. Others are just starting to be understood. There's some concern that these drugs may also reduce motivation for other things like motivation for physical activity, motivation for socializing. They may be sort of anti-pleasure or anti-desire drugs and that's not necessarily a good thing in terms of promoting a healthy recovery.

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