DENVER — The GLP-1 medication liraglutide significantly reduced opioid cravings in a small analysis presented on Saturday. It is the first randomized controlled trial to test anti-obesity drugs against opioid addiction, which kills around 80,000 people each year.
Among 20 patients for opioid use disorder, those on liraglutide experienced a 30% reduction in opioid cravings over the three-week study, with this effect evident at even the lowest liraglutide dose, according to data presented here at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
Among patients already on buprenorphine, a medication approved by the FDA to treat opioid use disorder, those on liraglutide as well were more likely to report zero cravings than the placebo group. This effect became statistically significant from the tenth day of the study onward, as patients were titrated to increasingly higher doses of liraglutide. “It suggests there’s an additive effect of these two medications,” said Andrew Saxon, an addiction psychiatrist at the University of Washington who was not involved with this study, potentially because liraglutide and buprenorphine target different neuropsychiatric mechanisms.