Neuropsychopharmacological and behavioural mechanisms underlying eating behaviour and disordered eating behaviour

Schneider, Elizabeth ORCID: 0000-0002-1711-0877 (2021). Neuropsychopharmacological and behavioural mechanisms underlying eating behaviour and disordered eating behaviour. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

The overall aim of this thesis was to understand the mechanisms underlying eating behaviour in healthy and disordered eating samples with a particular focus on homeostatic, reward, and cognitive processes. Chapter 1 provides a general background to the research area. In Chapter 2, experimental findings suggest women with obesity are more sensitive to the beneficial appetitive and mood effects of exogenous insulin compared to lean women. Results of a systematic review and meta-analysis in Chapter 3 suggest that the only drug approved to treat Binge Eating Disorder (BED), lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX), improves binge-eating symptoms through combined catecholaminergic and serotoninergic mediated actions on appetite, reward, and cognitive processes including attention and inhibition. Chapter 4 aimed to experimentally determine the behavioural mechanisms underlying LDX treatment of BED. LDX-induced reductions in food intake, eating rate and palatability, and improvement in sustained attention and impulsive responding supporting the possibility that LDX acts on appetite, reward, and cognition mechanisms to treat binge eating with a specific effect to increase cognitive control. Chapter 5 summarises the main findings of Chapters 2-4 and discusses the implications of the results. The findings of this thesis provide support for an interactive model of appetite control that emphasises cross talk between homeostatic, reward, and cognitive processes. The results suggest that further investigation of IN insulin as a weight management option for women with obesity is warranted and that novel therapeutics aimed at treating BED might target multiple mechanisms including satiety, reward, and cognitive control. The experimental designs used in this thesis also provide a validated paradigm for testing the efficacy of novel compounds to treat BED.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):