U.S.: Obese people study: They’re like drug addicts, except with food
- Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity.
- The Scripps Research Institute researcher Paul Kenny • Describing a study they did which showed that overweight rats reacted to food the way that drug addicts react to drugs. They found that as the rats gained weight, a dopamine receptor that signified reward went down. So, you know what this means, obese people. Start doing drugs. Replace one addiction with another. (Actually, don’t do that. That’s terrible advice. But then again, we’re not advice columnists.) source