Single-dose naloxone acutely reduces eating in obese humans: Behavioral and biochemical effects

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Evidence from animal and clinical experimentation has suggested that endogenous opioid peptides are involved in the modulation of eating behavior (Morley et al. 1983). For example, acute administration of naloxone reportedly reduces eating in normal-weight (Trenchard and Silverstone 1983; Cohen et al. 1985) and obese (Atkinson 1982; Wolkowitz et al. 1985) humans and reduces binging in normal-weight bulimic women (Mitchell et al. 1986). Chronic or subchronic administration of naltrexone, however, has generally been ineffective in promoting significant weight loss in obese patients (Atkinson et al. 1985; Maggio et al. 1985; Malcolm et al. 1985; Mitchell et al. 1987). Although opiate antagonist strategies may not provide clinically useful weight reduction treatments, they may broaden our understanding of endogenous opioid influences on appetite, feeding, and satiety. administration did significantly decrease mean caloric intake (Wolkowitz et al. 1985). In this report, we present additional analyses of naloxone effects on specific macronutrient consumption and on subjective ratings of hunger, fulhress, and physical side effects. To test whether or not resultant effects were related to pituitary and/or hypothalamic opiate receptor blockade (Naber et al. 1981), we also examined relationships between naloxone-induced increases in plasma cortisol and subsequent behavioral change.