Diabetes drug tirzepatide cuts drinking and prevents relapse in rodent study
Feb 22nd 2026
A study in eBioMedicine reports that tirzepatide, a dual gut-hormone drug approved for diabetes and obesity, lowered alcohol intake, blunted reward signals and blocked relapse-like behavior in rodents, but human trials are still needed.
- Tirzepatide reduced voluntary alcohol consumption by more than half in intermittent-access rodent models.
- The drug blocked alcohol-triggered dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, indicating an effect on brain reward circuitry.
- Tirzepatide prevented conditioned place preference and stopped relapse-like spikes in drinking after forced abstinence.
- Repeated dosing for two weeks maintained reduced alcohol intake without apparent tolerance.
- Treated animals had lower liver weight, reduced liver fat and decreased blood inflammatory proteins.
- Electrical and protein changes were detected in the lateral septum, suggesting epigenetic and circuit-level mechanisms.
- Key limitations include brain-chemistry and protein analyses done only in male animals, appetite and weight loss as side effects, and the absence of human clinical evidence