GLP-1 drugs help people lose weight. They help manage diabetes. Researchers found evidence that they may reduce the risk of heart disease, kidney disease, sleep apnea, and certain forms of liver disease. Sudies have even suggested they can curb cravings for alcohol and other addictive stuff. Now, according to a new Rutgers University study published in Criminology, GLP-1 medications might also reduce the risk of violent behavior.

The Rutgers study examined survey data from 7,521 American adults, including 821 people who had used a GLP-1 medication, with a focus on impulsivity and alcohol use, to well-known and well-established predictors of violent behavior. They found that among people taking GLP-1 drugs, the connection between impulsivity and violent behavior was about 62 percent weaker than it was among former users.

The relationship between alcohol use and violent behavior was around 52 percent weaker.

Ozempic-Style Drugs Could Be Linked to Lower Violent Behavior Risk

It wasn’t a lab-controlled study, and participants had to self-report their behaviors, which in this case included fighting, assault, and robbery. The researchers are clear to point out that the findings don’t definitively prove the GLP-1 drugs directly reduce violence, but there seems to be a belief that the medications influence the psychological pathways that lead to aggressive and reckless behavior.

The study’s co-author, Christopher Thomas, a criminal justice professor at Rutgers University – Camden, went so far as to suggest that the findings seem consistent with GLP-1 medications functioning a lot like cognitive behavioral therapy in that it doesn’t eliminate impulsivity; it just weakens the connection between impulsivity and action. You might still feel the need to do something violent; you just won’t give in to it.

It doesn’t mean that Ozempic is an anti-crime drug. You’re not going to be able to inject this in a serial killer, and they’ll come out the other side as Mother Teresa. All the study is doing is making an association, and not establishing a direct cause-and-effect relationship.

Still, it’s pretty amazing considering that a drug that was once a diabetes treatment is now a Swiss Army knife that can cure (or at least dampen) several things at once, the majority of them in no way associated with diabetes whatsoever. Who knows what other aspects of human life these drugs are influencing.

At this point, we might as well start injecting them into icebergs to protect against climate change.