Patients keep reporting that alcohol lost its pull, that cigarettes stopped interesting them, that cravings quieted, all while taking a drug prescribed for diabetes or weight. Researchers have taken those reports seriously enough to build a research program around them. What has not happened, and will not happen soon, is approval.
No GLP-1 medication is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for alcohol use disorder, opioid use disorder, nicotine dependence, or any other addiction. Any use for cravings is off-label. The trials designed to settle whether these drugs actually work for addiction are running now, and the first decisive readouts are not expected until 2027.
