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Benzodiazepines, appetite, and taste palatability
1Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48104-1687, USA.
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
|January 1, 1995
Summary
Benzodiazepines enhance the taste and palatability of food by acting on specific brain stem receptors. This feeding stimulation is linked to taste pleasure, not anxiety reduction.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Pharmacology
- Gastroenterology
Background:
- Benzodiazepines are known to stimulate feeding behaviors in animal models.
- Previous research suggested this effect might be secondary to anxiety reduction.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the mechanism of benzodiazepine-induced feeding.
- To determine if benzodiazepines enhance food palatability directly.
- To identify the neural substrates involved in this effect.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing evidence on benzodiazepine effects on feeding.
- Studies using rats to examine affective reactions to tastes.
- Analysis of receptor specificity and neural circuitry in normal and decerebrate brains.
Main Results:
- Benzodiazepines enhance hedonic taste palatability in a receptor-specific manner.
- The neural circuitry for this effect exists in the brain stem.
- Brain stem receptors, not forebrain, are primary for taste palatability enhancement.
Conclusions:
- A benzodiazepine-GABA neural system in the brain stem is crucial for taste pleasure.
- Human responses may differ due to lower doses or less responsive systems.
- Further studies are needed to understand human palatability responses to benzodiazepines.