Issue 216 Item 7 Link Found Between Overeating, Obestiy and Addiction

Evidence suggests chronic overeating can be a form of substance

Four UF studies published in the current issue of the Journal of Addictive Diseases present new evidence linking overeating, obesity and addiction, and could have treatment implications for people struggling with weight problems, alcoholism or drug use, said Dr. Mark Gold, chief of addiction medicine at UF’s College of Medicine and co-author of three of the papers. “What’s the difference between someone who’s lost control over alcohol and someone who’s lost control over good food?” asked Gold, who also is a distinguished professor of psychiatry at UF’s McKnight Brain Institute. “When you look at their brains and brain responses, the differences are not very significant.”

Gold, an early proponent of the food-as-drug model, said the medical community considered the idea radical a decade ago, but many addiction specialists now give it serious consideration. Advances in imaging technology, neurochemistry and other fields have enabled basic science researchers to map rodents’ brain pathways and show how food and drugs evoke similar responses. At the same time, clinical researchers such as Gold have begun investigating the relationship between food-seeking and drug-seeking behaviors in people.

“We’ve taken the position that overeating is in part due to food becoming more refined, more palatable, more hedonic,” Gold said. “Food might be the substance in a substance abuse disorder that we see today as obesity.”

Treatment for drug or alcohol addiction may be more likely to succeed if it includes a plan for a healthy diet and regular exercise, according to one of the papers Gold co-authored. A case-history review of 75 teenagers undergoing long-term residential drug treatment showed they gained an average of 11 pounds during the first 60 days, a change researchers believe may have happened to compensate for the loss of brain stimulation when drug use ended. The patients were monitored with urine screens to ensure they remained drug-free during treatment.

“Theoretically, the (finding) has the implication that says there is a push-pull — if the drugs are there, eating goes away; if drugs are gone, eating increases,” Gold said.

Similar supportive data came from a UF study in the journal that correlated obesity and self-reported alcohol use in female patients undergoing weight-loss treatment. The more obese the patient, the less likely she was to drink alcohol, said UF addiction medicine expert Dr. William Jacobs, who helped review the files of about 300 women 16 to 79.

Learn about the First Step Program, a program to increase physical activity, that has gone through 8 years of clinical studies to show it’s effectiveness. www.firststepprogram.com

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