# Alcohol Admissions After Stopping a GLP-1: Swedish Within-Person Data | This GLP A Swedish within-individual study of 167,026 people found alcohol-related hospital admissions fell on GLP-1 drugs (RR 0.55), and the benefit faded within a year of stopping. Publisher: This GLP Editorial Team Canonical: https://thisglp.com/research/what-happens-when-you-stop-drinking-on-it Updated: 2026-09-18 Published: 2026-09-17 [← Research](https://thisglp.com/research) Evidence # Alcohol Admissions After Stopping a GLP-1: Swedish Within-Person Data Comparing people against themselves, alcohol-related hospital admissions fell on a GLP-1 and stayed lower for 182 days after stopping. By a year, the difference was gone. [This GLP Editorial Team](https://thisglp.com/about)September 20267 min readUpdated September 2026 Alcohol-related hospitalization, same people · on the drug · 0.55 · days 1–182 after · 0.70 · days 183–364 after · 1.07 · Dashed line marks no change. **Research, not medical advice.** This GLP is independent and educational. Nothing here is a substitute for individualized care from a licensed clinician, and reading it creates no doctor–patient relationship. Talk to your own provider before starting, stopping, or changing any medication, peptide, or therapy. See our [methodology](https://thisglp.com/methodology) and [terms](https://thisglp.com/terms). ## Key takeaways - A Swedish register study of 167,026 people with type 2 diabetes compared each person against themselves, across periods on and off the drug. - While exposed, alcohol-related hospitalization rates were lower (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.43-0.70), as were substance-related ones (RR 0.61, 95% CI 0.50-0.74). - After stopping, the alcohol association persisted for the first 182 days (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.50-0.98) and was gone by days 183-364 (RR 1.07, 95% CI 0.71-1.63). - DPP-4 inhibitors, used as a comparison, showed no consistent reductions. Whether these drugs reduce drinking has been asked several times, including in the trials covered in [two trials that asked different questions](https://thisglp.com/research/does-semaglutide-reduce-alcohol-use). What had not been asked is what happens when people stop taking them, and a Swedish register study built specifically to answer that [\[1\]](https://thisglp.com/research/what-happens-when-you-stop-drinking-on-it#ref-1). The design deserves a moment. Rather than matching people on a drug to different people not on it, this study compared each person with themselves, contrasting periods when they were taking a GLP-1 drug against periods when they were not. Everything stable about a person — their genetics, their social circumstances, their baseline relationship with alcohol — cancels out by construction, which removes the confounding that troubles most of this literature. Across 167,026 residents of Stockholm County with type 2 diabetes, 41,109 received a GLP-1 drug at some point during the study period. While people were taking one, alcohol-related hospitalizations ran at a rate ratio of 0.55 (95% CI 0.43–0.70) against their own unexposed periods, and substance-related hospitalizations at 0.61 (95% CI 0.50–0.74). DPP-4 inhibitors, included as a comparison treatment, produced no consistent reductions, which suggests what was measured is not simply the effect of being under active medical care. How much that conclusion depends on the comparison chosen is the subject of [the overdose study with five comparators](https://thisglp.com/research/overdose-depends-on-the-comparator). The discontinuation windows are the new information. In the first 182 days after stopping, the alcohol association was still there but weaker, at 0.70 (95% CI 0.50–0.98). In days 183 to 364 it had gone, at 1.07 (95% CI 0.71–1.63), an interval sitting squarely across no effect. For substance use disorder more broadly, neither post-discontinuation window reached significance at all. Hospitalization is not drinking Nobody in this study was asked how much they drank. The outcome is an admission to hospital with an alcohol or substance code attached, which captures the severe end and misses everything below it. A fall in admissions is compatible with drinking less, and also with drinking the same amount with fewer crises. The practical reading the authors themselves draw is that substance use deserves clinical monitoring when one of these drugs is stopped. That matters more than it might sound, because stopping is the normal outcome rather than the exception, as [other register studies of this kind](https://thisglp.com/research/glp1-mortality-authors-doubt-their-own) and the discontinuation literature both show. If a benefit exists and fades within a year of stopping, then the population most exposed to that fade is large, and largely unwatched. The weight side of the same stopping problem is covered in [what happens to muscle](https://thisglp.com/research/muscle-loss-on-glp1). ## Frequently asked Why is comparing people with themselves better? It removes everything stable about a person from the comparison — genetics, social circumstances, baseline drinking — because those are identical in both periods. That is confounding most matched-cohort studies cannot eliminate. Does the benefit last after stopping? Partly and briefly. For alcohol-related admissions it persisted through the first 182 days (RR 0.70) and was gone by days 183 to 364 (RR 1.07). For substance use disorder generally, no post-stop window reached significance. Does this mean people drank less? It is not what was measured. The outcome was hospital admission with an alcohol or substance code, which captures severe events only. Fewer admissions is consistent with less drinking and also with fewer crises at the same level. ## Sources 1. \[1\] Bach P, Franck J, Hällgren J, Widing H, Gissler M, Westman J (2026). Association of GLP-1 receptor agonists with alcohol use disorder-related and substance use disorder-related hospital admissions during treatment and after discontinuation: a Swedish register-based within-individual observational study The Lancet. Psychiatry. [PMID 42456704](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42456704/) ## Where to get it ### Best GLP-1 injections Every injectable seller we can verify, with the price each one publishes and an honest read of what the trials measured. 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