From the Editor
Only three modestly effective medications have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment [of alcohol use disorder]. Novel pharmacological targets are desperately needed.
A new paper begins with an old truth: for some, alcohol misuse is devastating, yet effective medications remain few. What then should we make of oral semaglutide?
In a new study published in The American Journal of Psychiatry – quoted above – Joseph P. Schacht (of the University of Colorado) and his co-authors attempt to answer that question. They report on a phase 2, double-blind, randomized, parallel-arm trial involving 50 participants with alcohol use disorder (AUD) who received oral semaglutide or placebo. “Oral semaglutide significantly reduced alcohol consumption, naturalistic alcohol craving, alcohol-related problems, and cannabis use.” We consider the paper and its implications.
In the second selection, Dr. Jeffrey S. Woods (of the University of Texas at Houston) and his co-authors describe the history of coffee. In a clever paper for Biological Psychiatry, they review the literature, ultimately concluding that coffee may be healthful. “Despite millennia of enmeshment in human culture, over the past 50 years the medical community has treated coffee with caution.”
Finally, in the third selection, Clay Routledge (of the Archbridge Institute) writes about the growing awareness of mental health problems and, ironically, our deteriorating collective mental health. In an essay for The New York Times, he sees a connection. “We should try to spend less time stuck in our heads and more time out in the world, pursuing the kinds of activities that support mental health without making us so obsessed with it.”
DG
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