The DOI matches its Crossref record; 101 of the 101 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Obesity and the brain: how convincing is the addiction model?
Abstract
An increasingly influential perspective conceptualizes both obesity and overeating as a food addiction accompanied by corresponding brain changes. Because there are far-reaching implications for clinical practice and social policy if it becomes widely accepted, a critical evaluation of this model is important. We examine the current evidence for the link between addiction and obesity, identifying several fundamental shortcomings in the model, as well as weaknesses and inconsistencies in the empirical support for it from human neuroscientific research.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“Whether or not certain types of obesity should be defined as behavioural addictions (160), there are several identifiable circuits in the brain (2), whose dysfunctions uncover real and clinically meaningful parallels between the two disorders.”
From Obesity and addiction: Neurobiological overlaps (2013) · cites this paper as [160]
Citations
Cites
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders
Williams, J. B. W., & First, M. B. (2013) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.104 · Cited by 109,845
The neural basis of drug craving: An incentive-sensitization theory of addiction
Robinson, T. (1993) · Brain Research Reviews · doi:10.1016/0165-0173(93)90013-p · Cited by 7,346
The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments
Swinburn, B. A., Sacks, G., Hall, K. D., McPherson, K., Finegood, D. T., Moodie, M. L., & Gortmaker, S. L. (2011) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(11)60813-1 · Cited by 4,888
Wang, G.-J., Volkow, N. D., Logan, J., Pappas, N. R., Wong, C. T., Zhu, W., Netusll, N., & Fowler, J. S. (2001) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(00)03643-6 · Cited by 1,864
The Neuroscience of Natural Rewards: Relevance to Addictive Drugs
Kelley, A. E., & Berridge, K. C. (2002) · Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.22-09-03306.2002 · Cited by 1,505
Verdejo‐García, A., Lawrence, A. J., & Clark, L. (2008) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.11.003 · Cited by 1,502
Dopamine D2 receptors in addiction-like reward dysfunction and compulsive eating in obese rats
Johnson, P. M., & Kenny, P. J. (2010) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.2519 · Cited by 1,495
Reward, dopamine and the control of food intake: implications for obesity
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G.-J., & Baler, R. D. (2011) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2010.11.001 · Cited by 1,400
Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale
Gearhardt, A. N., Corbin, W. R., & Brownell, K. D. (2009) · Appetite · doi:10.1016/j.appet.2008.12.003 · Cited by 1,369
Avena, N. M., Rada, P., & Hoebel, B. G. (2008) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2007.04.019 · Cited by 1,358
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Vandenbroeck, P., Goossens, J. & Clemens, M. Tackling Obesities: Future Choices — Obesity System Atlas (Government Office for Science, UK, 2007).
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Obesity and addiction: Neurobiological overlaps
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G. ‐., Tomasi, D., & Baler, R. D. (2013) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/j.1467-789x.2012.01031.x · Cited by 800
Food cue reactivity and craving predict eating and weight gain: A meta-analytic review
Boswell, R. G., & Kober, H. (2016) · Obesity Reviews · doi:10.1111/obr.12354 · Cited by 703
Disorders of compulsivity: A common bias towards learning habits
Voon, V, Derbyshire, K., Rück, C., Irvine, M. A., Worbe, Y., Enander, J., Schreiber, L. R. N., Gillan, C., Fineberg, N. A., Sahakian, B. J., et al. (2015) · Molecular Psychiatry · doi:10.1038/mp.2014.44 · Cited by 643
(2013) · PubMed · Cited by 538
Long, C. G., Blundell, J. E., & Finlayson, G. (2015) · Obesity Facts · doi:10.1159/000442403 · Cited by 510
Metadata
- Authors
- Ziauddeen, H., Farooqi, I. S., & Fletcher, P. C.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Fletcher, Paul C.
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Neuroscience
- Published
- 2012-03-14
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 279-286
- ISSN
- 1471-003X (ISSN-L)
- 1471-0048
- OpenAlex
- W2033383318
- Cited by
- 462
- References
- 101
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 68 · 2019: 26 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 34 · 2016: 47 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 56 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 7.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature reviews. Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (095692, 093270)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Eating Disorders and Behaviors
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Endocrine and Autonomic Systems › Regulation of Appetite and Obesity
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Keywords
- obesity, food addiction, addiction models, overeating, brain changes, neurobiology of eating, clinical practice, social policy, evidence evaluation
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Humans, Hyperphagia, Models, Theoretical, Obesity, Behavior, Addictive
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
