Saturday, March 24, 2012: 10:40 AM-12:10 PM
Blue Topaz (The Charleston Marriott)
Overeating and obesity,a world-wide public health problem, has gained increased attention from health authorities and researchers. Food addiction theory and models are discussed along with novel treatment approaches currently being studied. Possibilities exist that these may also yield the next decades of new clinical, prevention and pharmacological treatment approaches.
Who we are and what we do.
Examples of our recent work.
Current state of globesity and how we got to this point.
How process and substance addictions are the same.
How process and substance addictions are different.
Risk factors for addictions, both substance and process.
Food Addiction: evolution of an idea to a theory to a hypothesis.
Common brain circuitry
Animal models of sugar addiction
Novel treatment approaches currently being studied
A growing body of empirical and experiential evidence indicates that certain individuals can develop maladaptive patterns of consuming behaviors and substances that are essential for survival, including food and sex. Addiction treatment professionals recognize that food and drugs compete and that during drug withdrawal, patients often overeat and gain weight while during drug use binges, eating fades from the users priority list. Overeating and obesity , now a world-wide public health problem , called globesity, has gained increased attention from health authorities and researchers. Researchers, recognizing that an epidemic like this is unlikely to be due to genes, have developed a rat model of binge eating on sugar and sugar/fat solutions. Sugar is self administered in the lab like a drug of abuse. In addition, sugar bingeing rats consume more sugar solution over time (evidence of tolerance), demonstrate increased sugar consumption after a period of abstinence ( deprivation effect), and exhibit signs of opiate-like withdrawal, when given a high dose of naloxone, an opioid antagonist. Dopamine and other neurotransmitters are released in anticipation of a great meal and fMRI and PET studies support the notion that food, like drugs of abuse, cause important and consistent changes in the brain dopamine systems. Like drug addicts, obese individuals exhibit decreased striatal D2 receptor availability. Moreover, the brains of obese individuals may change in ways which not only reinforce food consumption but also impair their ability to derive pleasure from activities other than eating. Food addiction theory and models are important and may also yield the next decades of new clinical, prevention and pharmacological treatment approaches.
Primary Presenter:
Nicole Avena, PhD
Dr. Nicole Avena received a Ph.D. in Psychology and Neuroscience from Princeton University under the mentorship of Dr. Bart Hoebel. She then conducted postdoctoral research at The Rockefeller University, studying molecular biology. She joined the UF faculty in 2010. She also has an appointment at Princeton as Visiting Assistant Professor. Her work has largely focused on studying the concept of food addiction using animal models. Her other research interests include understanding the neural basis of eating disorders, such as bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa.
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