Taking a new generation of weight-loss medication is linked to a significantly lower risk of addiction and death from drugs such as cocaine and alcohol, a large US study suggested on Thursday.
The massively popular drugs known as GLP-1 agonists could even halve people’s risk of dying from a range of harmful substances, according to the research published in the BMJ journal on Thursday. However outside experts urged caution in interpreting the results, which do not establish a causal link, calling for clinical trials to find out more.
As GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic have transformed the treatment of diabetes and obesity in recent years, they have also shown signs of helping with a surprising variety of health problems — including addiction.
The US team of researchers analysed the medical records of more than 600,000 people with type 2 diabetes in the US Department of Veterans Affairs’ healthcare database who took either GLP-1s or an older kind of diabetes drug.
