Trial reportEating behaviors2015
Putting the brakes on the "drive to eat": Pilot effects of naltrexone and reward-based eating on food cravings among obese women.
Trial report in Eating behaviors, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Disordered Eating among People with Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2021Pooled it
- Mindfulness-Based Mobile Health to Address Unhealthy Eating Among Middle-Aged Sexual Minority Women With Early Life Adversity: Mixed Methods Feasibility Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Trial
- Does the Neuroimmune Modulator Ibudilast Alter Food Craving? Results in a Sample With Alcohol Use Disorder.Journal of addiction medicineTrial
- Appropriate use of the fixed-dose, extended-release combination of naltrexone and bupropion as treatment for obesity in primary care.Obesity pillars · 2025Review
- The Turkish validity and reliability of the Reward-Based Eating Drive (RED-13) Scale.PloS one · 2025Observational
- The battle over "food addiction".Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Tobacco withdrawal increases junk food intake: The role of the endogenous opioid system.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Article
- Safety and efficacy of naltrexone for weight loss in adult patients - a systematic review.Archives of medical science : AMS · 2021Review
- Ultraprocessed Food: Addictive, Toxic, and Ready for Regulation.Nutrients · 2020Article
- The Opioid System and Food Intake: Use of Opiate Antagonists in Treatment of Binge Eating Disorder and Abnormal Eating Behavior.Journal of clinical medicine research · 2020Review
- Rapid Assessment of Reward-Related Eating: The RED-X5.Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) · 2019Article
- Testing a mobile mindful eating intervention targeting craving-related eating: feasibility and proof of concept.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2018Article
- A narrative review of potential treatment strategies for food addiction.Eating and weight disorders : EWD · 2017Review
- The effectiveness of naltrexone combined with current smoking cessation medication to attenuate post smoking cessation weight gain: a literature review.Journal of pharmaceutical policy and practice · 2017Review
- Improving Assessment of the Spectrum of Reward-Related Eating: The RED-13.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposeObese individuals vary in their experience of food cravings and tendency to engage in reward-driven eating, both of which can be modulated by the neural reward system rather than physiological hunger. We examined two predictions in a sample of obese women: (1) whether opioidergic blockade reduced food-craving intensity, and (2) whether opioidergic blockade reduced an association between food-craving intensity and reward-driven eating, which is a trait-like index of three factors (lack of control over eating, lack of satiation, preoccupation with food).
methodsForty-four obese, pre-menopausal women completed the Reward-Based Eating Drive (RED) scale at study start and daily food-craving intensity on 5 days on which they ingested either a pill-placebo (2 days), a 25 mg naltrexone dose (1 day), or a standard 50mg naltrexone dose (2 days).
resultsCraving intensity was similar under naltrexone and placebo doses. The association between food-craving intensity and reward-driven eating significantly differed between placebo and 50mg naltrexone doses. Reward-driven eating and craving intensity were significantly positively associated under both placebo doses. As predicted, opioidergic blockade (for both doses 25mg and 50mg naltrexone) reduced the positive association between reward-driven eating and craving intensity to non-significance.
conclusionsOpioidergic blockade did not reduce craving intensity; however, blockade reduced an association between trait-like reward-driven eating and daily food-craving intensity, and may help identify an important endophenotype within obesity.
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