SEATTLE — A medication originally designed to treat diabetes is showing unexpected promise in fighting addiction.
Medications like Ozempic, already popular for weight loss, may help reduce cravings for alcohol and other substances.
They're known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, short for "glucagon-like peptide one" -- but commonly recognized as drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Trulicity.
First developed in the 1980s, they were originally designed to control blood sugar for diabetes patients. In recent years, the medication has skyrocketed in popularity for weight loss.
But these patients started reporting something doctors didn't expect: they weren't just eating less, they were drinking less too.
"So a lot of people talked about the food noise also being the alcohol noise, right? And so,