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  • Original Research Article
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Binge-eating episodes are not characteristic of carriers of melanocortin-4 receptor gene mutations

Molecular Psychiatry volume 9, pages 796–800 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Recently, Branson and coworkers reported a strong association between binge-eating disorder (BED) and variants in the melanocortin-4 receptor gene (MC4R). In the current study, we compared the eating behavior of 43 obese probands with functionally relevant MC4R mutations and of 35 polymorphism carriers (V103I or I251L) with wild-type carriers. The module for eating disorders of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview was used to identify binge-eating behavior. The Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire and the Leeds Food Frequency Questionnaire were used to assess restrained eating, disinhibition, hunger and percent total energy intake as fat. No significant differences between carriers of MC4R variants and wild-type carriers were detected. In particular, we found no evidence for an increased rate of binge-eating behavior in obese carriers of MC4R variants. Our findings do not support the strong association between BED and MC4R carrier status.

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Acknowledgements

The participation of the probands and their families is gratefully acknowledged. This study was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Nationales Genomforschungsnetz 01GS0118) and the European Union (Framework V ‘Diet and obesity’ QK-CT-2000–00515).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany

    J Hebebrand, M Raab, G Gerber, A-K Wermter, F F Horro, H Remschmidt & A Hinney

  2. Institute of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology of the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany

    F Geller, A Dempfle, M Heinzel-Gutenbrunner & H Schäfer

  3. PsychoBiology Research Unit, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    J Blundell

  4. Clinic of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Essen, Germany

    S Herpertz

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  1. J Hebebrand
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  2. F Geller
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  3. A Dempfle
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  4. M Heinzel-Gutenbrunner
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  9. J Blundell
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  13. A Hinney
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Correspondence to J Hebebrand.

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Hebebrand, J., Geller, F., Dempfle, A. et al. Binge-eating episodes are not characteristic of carriers of melanocortin-4 receptor gene mutations. Mol Psychiatry 9, 796–800 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001491

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