Semaglutide is a drug that is going viral right now because it is the choice for those who want to lose weight fast. It is sold under the names Ozempic and Mounjaro and was originally developed to control appetite in diabetics. According to the latest research conducted by the University of Oklahoma (OU) Tulsa and Oklahoma State University (OSU), semaglutide can also be used to treat alcohol addiction.
Patients who received semaglutide were also found to have lower scores on a test to detect alcohol use disorder (AUD). In the AUD test, a score from zero to 40 is used to see the level of addiction with a score of 15 and above being categorized as serious. The tests performed involved only six patients. So a test with a larger number of participants will be done to see the effectiveness of semaglutide in reducing the craving for alcohol.
Previous studies on rats and laboratory monkeys showed that semaglutide can not only reduce alcohol addiction but also against drug abuse. In Malaysia, although only around 12% of the population consumes alcohol, 45.8% of them consume it in excessive amounts. Much higher than the 27% in the UK. Alcohol addiction results in various other serious diseases such as liver failure and also results in accidental death.
Prevention is indeed better than cure. But those who have an addiction problem need to be given treatment to prevent it from becoming more serious.