ReviewFrontiers in psychology2014
Eating behavior and stress: a pathway to obesity.
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 149 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
149 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 345 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy and safety of pharmacological treatments for obesity in adults.Nature medicine · 2025 · on this mapPooled it
- Stress-Induced Eating Among Racial/Ethnic Groups in the United States: a Systematic Review.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Coping Strategies Influence Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Chronic Psychological Stress: A Post Hoc Analysis of A Randomized Pilot Study.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- Racial/ethnic differences in dietary intake among a diverse sample of adolescents: An experimental study.Pediatric obesity · 2021Trial
- Influence of Acute Physical Activity on Stress Reactivity in Obese and Normal Weight Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Obesity facts · 2019Trial
- Impact of physical activity on energy balance, food intake and choice in normal weight and obese children in the setting of acute social stress: a randomized controlled trial.BMC pediatrics · 2015Trial
- Occupational Stress, Nutritional Health, and Physical Pain Among Hong Kong Schoolteachers: A Cross-Sectional Study.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Momentary associations between perceived stress, dietary restriction, and eating behaviors in adolescents.Journal of pediatric psychology · 2026Article
- Effects of early life adversity on acute metabolic outcomes during neonatal development.Neurobiology of stress · 2026Article
- Psychosocial Stressors and Heart Failure Risk Among Black Women in the US.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- The association between career stress and disordered eating behaviors in university students: a cross-sectional study.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Anxiety disorders: a cross-sectional study of clinical and biological associations.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2026Article
- Association between multiple discrimination experiences and disordered eating behavior among Brazilian university students.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Article
- Food Insecurity and Adolescent Obesity in the United States: A Social Ecological Analysis of Multi-Level Risk Factors and Structural Inequities.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- An Overview of the Impact of the Menstrual Cycle on Nutrient Metabolism: An Integrative Perspective.Nutrients · 2026Review
- Association of shift work with body weight, stress, sleep, and dietary intake in prison officers and firefighters.European journal of nutrition · 2026Article
- Environmental Determinants of Pediatric Obesity: An Epidemiological Review.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Associations between food-related concerns, food security status, and food support use: a secondary analysis of the Food and You 2: Wave 6 dataset.Journal of nutritional science · 2026Article
- Neuroendocrine-immune perturbations in metabolic disease: pathophysiological mechanisms underlying cognitive impairment.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2026Review
89 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Stress causes or contributes to a huge variety of diseases and disorders. Recent evidence suggests obesity and other eating-related disorders may be among these. Immediately after a stressful event is experienced, there is a corticotropin-releasing-hormone (CRH)-mediated suppression of food intake. This diverts the body's resources away from the less pressing need to find and consume food, prioritizing fight, flight, or withdrawal behaviors so the stressful event can be dealt with. In the hours following this, however, there is a glucocorticoid-mediated stimulation of hunger and eating behavior. In the case of an acute stress that requires a physical response, such as a predator-prey interaction, this hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis modulation of food intake allows the stressful event to be dealt with and the energy used to be replaced afterward. In the case of ongoing psychological stress, however, chronically elevated glucocorticoids can lead to chronically stimulated eating behavior and excessive weight gain. In particular, stress can enhance the propensity to eat high calorie "palatable" food via its interaction with central reward pathways. Activation of this circuitry can also interact with the HPA axis to suppress its further activation, meaning not only can stress encourage eating behavior, but eating can suppress the HPA axis and the feeling of stress. In this review we will explore the theme of eating behavior and stress and how these can modulate one another. We will address the interactions between the HPA axis and eating, introducing a potential integrative role for the orexigenic hormone, ghrelin. We will also examine early life and epigenetic modulation of the HPA axis and how this can influence eating behavior. Finally, we will investigate the clinical implications of changes to HPA axis function and how this may be contributing to obesity in our society.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.