Synonyms
Definition
Appetite stimulants are agents that promote the motivation to eat through actions on psychological, neurochemical, metabolic, or endocrine processes. Their actions may increase hunger and the desire to eat, promote the anticipation of, or craving for food, and/or enhance hedonic responses to the sensory properties of foods. These psychological effects may cause over consumption by increasing the salience of, and attention to, food stimuli and so advance the initiation of eating, or by increasing meal frequency, meal size, or meal duration. Drugs that increase appetite and/or food intake, and that may be used for the amelioration of loss of appetite and body weight associated with illness or radical medical treatments of disease.
Pharmacological Properties
History
Unlike the substantial commercial and academic research efforts that have been devoted to the development of appetite suppressant treatments, relatively few...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Ben-Menachem E (2007) Weight issues for people with epilepsy - a review. Epilepsia 48(Suppl 9):42–45
Casey DE, Zorn SH (2001) The pharmacology of weight gain with antipsychotics. J Clin Psychiatry 62(Suppl 7):4–10
Chinuck RS, Fortnum H, Baldwin DR (2007) Appetite stimulants and cystic fibrosis: a systematic review. J Hum Nutr Diet 20:526–537
Kirkham TC (2005) Endocannabinoids in the regulation of appetite and body weight. Behav Pharmacol 16:297–313
Kluge M, Schuld A, Himmerich H, Dalal M, Schacht A, Wehmeier PM, Hinze-Selch D, Kraus T, Dittmann RW, Pollmächer T (2007) Clozapine and olanzapine are associated with food craving and binge eating: results from a randomized double-blind study. J Clin Psychopharmacol 27:662–666
Martin CK, Han H, Anton SD, Greenway FL, Smith SR (2009) Effect of valproic acid on body weight, food intake, physical activity and hormones: results of a randomized controlled trial. J Psychopharmacol 23:814–825
Powers PS, Santana C (2004) Available pharmacological treatments for anorexia nervosa. Expert Opin Pharmacother 5:2287–2292
Schwartz TL, Nihilani N, Jindal S, Virk S, Jones N (2004) Psychiatric medication induced obesity: a review. Obes Rev 5:115–121
Torrent C, Amann B, Sánchez-Moreno J, Colom F, Reinares M, Comes M, Rosa AR, Scott J, Vieta E (2008) Weight gain in bipolar disorder: pharmacological treatment as a contributing factor. Acta Psychiatr Scand 118:4–18
Wirshing DA (2004) Schizophrenia and obesity: impact of antipsychotic medications. J Clin Psychiatry 65(Suppl 18):13–26
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this entry
Cite this entry
Kirkham, T.C. (2010). Appetite Stimulants. In: Stolerman, I.P. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychopharmacology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68706-1_139
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68706-1_139
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-68698-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-68706-1
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesReference Module Biomedical and Life Sciences