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. 2023 Dec;29(12):2993-2995.
doi: 10.1038/s41591-023-02634-8.

GLP-1 receptor agonists are promising but unproven treatments for alcohol and substance use disorders

Lorenzo Leggio  1 , Christian S Hendershot  2 , Mehdi Farokhnia  3 , Anders Fink-Jensen  4   5 , Mette Kruse Klausen  4 , Joseph P Schacht  6 , W Kyle Simmons  7   8
Affiliations

GLP-1 receptor agonists are promising but unproven treatments for alcohol and substance use disorders

Lorenzo Leggio et al. Nat Med. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Preclinical and initial human studies suggest that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists may be promising treatments for alcohol use disorder, but existing approved treatments should be used until safety and efficacy is demonstrated in clinical trials.

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Conflict of interest statement

L.L. reports, outside his federal employment, honoraria from the UK Medical Council on Alcohol (editor-in-chief for Alcohol and Alcoholism) and book royalties from Routledge (as editor of a textbook). A.F.J. has received two unrestricted research grants from Novo Nordisk A/S for two clinical studies investigating the effects of GLP-1RAs in antipsychotic-treated prediabetic patients with schizophrenia. J.P.S. has received study medication from Bausch Health. The other authors report no competing interests.

References

    1. Klausen MK et al. Br. J. Pharmacol 179, 625–641 (2022). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chuong V et al. JCI Insight 8, e170671 (2023). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aranäs C et al. eBioMedicine 93, 104642 (2023). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Suchankova P et al. Transl. Psychiatry 5, e583 (2015). - PMC - PubMed
    1. Farokhnia M et al. Sci. Rep 12, 13027 (2022). - PMC - PubMed

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