What Contributes to Appetite?

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GLP-1 RAs affect more than appetite for food: they can reduce your appetite for alcohol, drugs, and even sex.

GLP-1 RAs are proving effective in treating substance use disorders, including alcohol addiction.

Despite low risk of mood effects, FDA recommends monitoring GLP-1 RA patients for negative effects on mood.

If you’ve recently started taking a glucagon-like peptide receptor agonist (GLP-1 or GLP-1 RA) for weight loss, obesity, and diabetes, you may have noticed it can affect your mood. While that may not be surprising, as one of the ways these drugs work is by targeting the dopamine reward pathways in your brain to reduce appetite, the verdict is still out as to whether these drugs do indeed have negative effects on mood.

Glucagon-like peptide is a hormone that is released by cells in your gut when you eat. Food intake stimulates release of GLP, which in turn stimulates insulin secretion from the pancreas and slows food emptying from your stomach. That’s why you feel full after eating less food and feel full longer when taking GLP-1s. As a result, you eat less and lose weight.

Besides working on the stomach and pancreas, glucagon-like peptide travels through the bloodstream to your brain, where there are many areas rich in receptors for the hormone—areas that include the feel-good dopamine reward pathways.

When GLP and GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs, the drugs that mimic the hormone) bind to those brain receptors, the brain cells in those regions tell you that you have satisfied your need for more food, and you no longer crave it. Those same reward pathways that make you hungry for food also make you hungry for other things that trigger the brain’s reward chemical dopamine. That includes drugs and alcohol, and the positive mood feelings that go along with reward.

This is a good thing in the case of alcohol addiction. Animal and human studies indicate that GLP-1 RAs can substantially reduce cravings for........

© Psychology Today