Scientists don’t have a clear explanation for why drugs like Ozempic appear to lessen cravings for vices, including for addictive substances. But they have some ideas that they’re testing — some here in Canada, where any advance would help significantly, as the country faces a growing opioid crisis.

There haven’t been many randomized clinical trials — which are considered the gold standard for evaluating medical claims — on whether GLP-1 RAs reduce addictive behaviours.

There have only been two such trials studying their impact on alcohol addiction, none for opioid addiction and two for nicotine addiction, according to a recent review published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

Christian Hendershot, a California-based Canadian researcher, co-authored one of those randomized controlled trials, published recently in JAMA Psychiatry, looking at alcohol consumption.