This article is taken from Newsday, 2/2/01, health and science section. It finally shows a pure science research group in Brookhaven Labs who is showing the specific neurotransmitter deficiencies in each addiction, from drugs to behaviors. This article is about overeating addiction. I spoke to the chief investigator there, Dr. Wang, who completely agrees with Hypoism and has invited me to speak to his group about it in March. Notice, they comprehend the difficulties of treating these addicts with drugs because in doing so they will just cause another addiction instead of treating the original one. This is a major tenet of Hypoism recovery and a group of basic scientists actually understand this. Wow!
Their study is: Wang, Volkow, et al. Brain Dopamine and Obesity. Lancet 2001; 357: 354-57

Study Provides Clue to Overeating - Newsday 2/2/01

by Jamie Talan
Staff Writer

A marked reduction in chemical receptors in the brains of obese people may trigger overeating in an effort to stimulate the brain's "reward and motivation" circuits, a new study shows.

A similar finding has been identified in drug addicts.

Dr. Gene-Jack Wang and his colleagues at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton discovered that obese people have about 20 percent fewer receptors for the chemical dopamine in the area of the brain that regulates reward.

The idea to study eating behavior grew from findings that medicines that increase dopamine-stimulants like Ritalin-suppress appetite. By contrast, medicines that block dopamine lead to a weight gain. Animal studies also have shown that many of the reinforcing aspects of food-even the expectation that food will be coming-triggers an increase in dopamine. This suggests that the brain chemical is intimately tied to circuits in the brain that govern pleasure and reward.

The Brookhaven study appears today in the medical journal Lancet.

Last year, Brookhaven's Dr. Nora Volkow published a paper suggesting that cocaine addicts have reduced levels of a specific type of dopamine receptor called D2. Addicts use drugs to activate these reward circuits. Many behaviors associated with a reinforcing response from the brain-drugs, sex, gambling and now food-can increase dopamine, Volkow said.

"It's one of the most powerful strategies nature has created to make people do something," she added. "Activation of reward circuits creates a sense of well-being." She believes that a reduced number of dopamine receptors can put people at risk for drug use and overeating, as this latest study suggests.

The scientists recruited 10 extremely obese but otherwise healthy people.

The average age was 35; the average weight, 300 pounds.

Each subject received a PET scan, which can measure specific brain chemicals. The scientists were interested in the dopamine D2 receptors. The receptors were significantly decreased in the obese people compared with a group of 10 volunteers of normal weight. The higher the body-mass index, or BMI, the lower the number of dopamine receptors.

This study doesn't address whether weight gain lowers the number of dopamine receptors, or whether people are born with fewer receptors and that leads to food addiction.

If the link between obesity and dopamine receptors can be replicated in other studies, the finding might help guide treatments for obesity.

"We would suggest that people engage in other behaviors that increase the activity of the reward circuits," Volkow said. She says that programs such as Overeaters Anonymous may be effective because they provide a social environment, which is innately reinforcing.

The team plans to study dopamine levels in obese patients before and after they lose weight. Volkow said they will be working with Dr. Richard Rubenstein of the University Hospital and Medical Center at Stony Brook. He specializes in surgery for obesity that involves stapling the stomach to reduce food intake.

They will enroll 20 surgical patients for the study, and take brain scans before and after the operation and subsequent weight loss.

The scientists say that they would be worried about using medicines to increase the dopamine levels because that could lead to other addictions.

"This is a landmark study," said Dr. Hans Breiter, director of motivation and emotion neuroscience center in the department of radiology at Harvard Medical School. "This is the first time scientists have gone beyond substance abuse to say that the same neurochemical systems are involved with other behaviors."