Potential Role of Addiction Pharmacotherapy in Problematic Eating Behavior

Abstract

Obesity is pandemic worldwide, and hyperphagia remains extremely difficult for physicians to treat. Currently, appetite suppression continues to be the focus of antiobesity drugs, and these drugs are clearly unsuccessful in the long term. Although the food addiction concept remains controversial, this hypothesis provides a matrix in which to examine disordered eating behaviors and their similarities to addiction. This article looks at food addiction as the high end of an eating disorder continuum, with anorexia nervosa as the low end. Similarities with drug addiction provide an avenue leading to new and potentially more successful treatments.