A large new study published in The BMJ finds that GLP-1 medications such as Ozempic and Mounjaro may help prevent multiple substance use disorders and reduce related harms. An analysis of electronic health records from over 600,000 U.S. Veterans Affairs patients with diabetes compared those treated with GLP-1 drugs to those treated with other blood sugar-lowering medications over three years.
Researchers found that people starting GLP-1 drugs had lower risks of developing addiction across multiple substances. Compared with other medications, people taking GLP-1 drugs showed reduced addiction risk of 18% for alcohol, 14% for cannabis, 20% for both cocaine and nicotine, and 25% for opioids. In patients who already had substance use disorders, starting GLP-1 drugs was linked with a 31% lower risk of emergency department visits, 26% lower risk of hospitalizations, 39% lower risk of overdose, and 50% lower risk of death. Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, the study’s lead author, stated that the drugs are “actually working against the root cause of all these different addictions.”
Study Limitations and Next Steps
The study had notable limitations, including being conducted within the VA health system serving a population that is mostly older, white and male, though results were consistent in more than 35,000 women. It included data only from people with diabetes, not the general population, and couldn’t account for factors like socioeconomic status. The analysis shows GLP-1 drugs are associated with reduced risk, not that they caused the reduction. Dr. Lorenzo Leggio from the National Institute on Drug Abuse noted that GLP-1 drugs may work by dampening “alcohol or drug noise” similarly to how they reduce “food noise.” Dr. Anna Lembke from Stanford cautioned that the drugs don’t work the same way for all users and have risks that must be weighed against benefits. Al-Aly emphasized that randomized controlled clinical trials comparing the drugs to placebo are needed before prescribing them specifically for substance use disorders.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.pasadenastarnews.com/2026/03/04/glp-1-substance-use-what-to-know/