Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30188514›Full record

ReviewNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2018

Food addiction: a valid concept?

Paul C Fletcher, Paul J Kenny

Erratum issuedOpen access · hybridAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 94 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
94citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
26.1field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

94 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 220 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Food Addiction in Individuals With Overweight and Obesity Undergoing a 12-Week Long Tailored mHealth Weight Loss Intervention.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2025
    Trial
  6. Trial
  7. Trial
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. MidbrainbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  12. Observational
  13. Article
  14. Food Addiction Is Strongly Associated With Psychopathology and Reduced Psychological Well-Being Among Adults Irrespective of BMI.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2026
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

34 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Paul C FletcherDepartment of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 8AH, UK. paul.kenny@mssm.edu.
Paul J KennyDepartment of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, 10029, USA.
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai · USUniversity of Cambridge · GB

Funding

Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Can food be addictive? What does it mean to be a food addict? Do common underlying neurobiological mechanisms contribute to drug and food addiction? These vexing questions have been the subject of considerable interest and debate in recent years, driven in large part by the major health concerns associated with dramatically increasing body weights and rates of obesity in the United States, Europe, and other regions with developed economies. No clear consensus has yet emerged on the validity of the concept of food addiction and whether some individuals who struggle to control their food intake can be considered food addicts. Some, including Fletcher, have argued that the concept of food addiction is unsupported, as many of the defining features of drug addiction are not seen in the context of feeding behaviors. Others, Kenny included, have argued that food and drug addiction share similar features that may reflect common underlying neural mechanisms. Here, Fletcher and Kenny argue the merits of these opposing positions on the concept of food addiction.

Indexed as

RewardAnimalsBehavior, AddictiveEatingFeeding BehaviorFood AddictionHumansObesity

Identifiers

PMID30188514
PMCPMC6224546
OpenAlexW2891991357

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.