Eating disorders are closely related to obesity. Physicians are not sure whether to place these disorders under the category of disturbed mental conditions or not. Impaired eating behaviour diagnosis and its treatment are not included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. As a result, many medical insurance companies do not cover them. Unfortunately, apart from poor diagnosis these conditions prove to be extremely costly for treatment.
Researchers from the department of Psychiatry and the Behavioural & Clinical Neuroscience Institute at the University of Cambridge have developed anti-obesity drugs which can stop the regions of the brain from getting activated and make obese people not overeat tasty food. The results of the findings are reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, October 2010.
How Anti-Obesity Drugs Can Inhibit Eating Behaviour?
- Behaviour of eating and appetite control are associated with regions of the brain hypothalamus and the amygdala.
- According to the researchers there are few effective drugs which can reduce weight and at the same time be less risky to the body.
- The present research is able to generate hope that brain imaging and psychological tests can be useful in the development of effective yet less risky drugs.
- As a part of this research a group of obese volunteers were treated with drugs like sibutramine while they were shown the pictures of high calorie foods.
- The results of the study were compared with that of patients who were given pseudo treatment for two weeks of the study.
- The drug sibutramine was found to reduce the intake of high calorie foods in volunteers taking it.
Significance of the Research Study on Eating Behaviour:
This study helped in the understanding of how anti-obesity drugs interacted with the brain to inhibit the habit of overeating. The study established the fact that knowing more about brain-behaviour link is fundamental to treating obesity.
The physical disorder has become an epidemic in the recent times and over eating has a big role in it. The problem affects the entire body, but originates in the reward and satiety processing circuits in the brain which regulate impaired eating habits.
