GLP-1 drugs, originally meant to manage diabetes and obesity, could also help people kick hardcore addictions to alcohol, opioids, and even gambling.
Reported by STAT News, with a hat tip to Futurism’s Noor Al-Sibai, at Caron Treatment Center, a high-end rehab facility in Pennsylvania, doctors are experimenting with GLP-1 meds like Ozempic and Wegovy to see just how effective they are at curbing drug cravings. They curb appetites, so why not the insatiable appetites for other substances that people become addicted to, which may be a little more intense than sugars and fats?
Dr. Steven Klein, an addiction medicine specialist at Caron, doesn’t see this as revolutionary. “We’re using something off-label under the umbrella of addiction,” he says. While GLP-1s are not FDA-approved for treating addiction, anecdotal evidence is piling up. We reported on the first hints of this alternate use for GLP-1s back in October 2024.
Weight Loss Drugs Have a Surprising Effect on Addicts
Dr. Mo Sarhan, who runs the center’s Florida location and is in recovery himself, noticed that patients prescribed GLP-1s for weight loss started reporting fewer cravings for their substance of choice and had more clarity in their recovery.
This real-world feedback turned into a more intentional strategy. Now Caron’s GLP-1 program is in full swing. It’s still too early to call it a miracle, but promising enough that it’s grabbing national attention.
If science continues backing up these early signs, and if the price (or insurance hurdles) ever drops, semaglutide could go from buzzy weight loss hack to frontline addiction treatment. For now, it’s a high-stakes experiment in progress—one shot at a time.
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