MONDAY, May 12, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are tied to a reduction in alcohol intake, according to a research letter recently published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism and presented at the annual meeting of the European Congress on Obesity, hosted by the European Association for the Study of Obesity from May 11 to 14 in Malaga, Spain.
Maurice O’Farrell, M.B.B.S., from the Medication Weight Loss Clinic in Dublin, and colleagues examined changes in alcohol use when patients were treated for obesity with GLP-1 RAs in a real-world setting. Data were included for 262 adults with a body mass index ≥27 kg/m2 who were initiated on liraglutide or semaglutide; participants were categorized into nondrinkers, rare drinkers, and regular drinkers (11.8, 19.8, and 68.3 percent, respectively).
The researchers found that none of the patients reported an increase in alcohol intake. There was a reduction in alcohol intake observed, from a preintervention mean of 11.8 ± 1.0 units/week to a postintervention mean of 4.3 ± 0.5 units/week. Reductions were confirmed in Mann-Whitney U tests in both high and low consumers, which also confirmed no significant difference in percentage reduction between men and women. After approximately four months, mean weight loss was 7.7 ± 0.3 kg, with no significant difference seen in the percentage reduction between men and women. There was a weak positive correlation noted between alcohol reduction and weight loss (r = 0.24).
“The exact mechanism of how GLP-1 analogues reduce alcohol intake is still being investigated but it is thought to involve curbing cravings for alcohol that arise in subcortical areas of the brain that are not under conscious control,” coauthor Carel Le Roux, M.D., from the Diabetes Complications Research Centre at University College Dublin, said in a statement.
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