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Studies have shown that a drug that’s used to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder ADHD might also help to in the curtailing of binge-eating disorder.
Tests have confirmed that the ADHD drug Vyvanse, at higher doses can curtail excessive food consumption which is one of the primary characteristic of binge-eating disorder, according to researchers.
The drug Vyvanse is the only approved drug in the U.S to treat ADHD, while no drug has been approved for treating or curtailing binge-eating disorder.
Binge-eating has only been recently classified by the psychiatric community as a distinct disorder. The main features of which are food craving and recurrent episodes of excessive food consumption followed by a feeling of loss of control and psychological distress as authors of the study rightly noted. It’s also pointed out that it is more commonly associated with obese people.
“Presently, epilepsy drugs are commonly used to treat this disorder, and they actually do help the people to eat healthy and lose weight,” said one of the study author Dr. James Mitchell, president of the Neuropsychiatric Research Institute in Fargo, N.D.
“But they also do present side-effects, primarily affecting cognitive impairment resulting in difficulties for patients to cope with these drugs,” he added.
The 14 week study for treating binge-eating disorder yielded that the drug Vyvanse was quite effective and was also easily tolerated by most patients.
