title: Binge-eating episodes are not characteristic of carriers of melanocortin-4 receptor gene mutations.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of the Philipps-University of Marburg, Germany. Johannes.Hebebrand@med.uni-marburg.de
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hebebrand
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Geller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dempfle
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Heinzel-Gutenbrunner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raab
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.forename: A-K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Wermter
authors.forename: F F
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Horro
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Blundell
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schäfer
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Remschmidt
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Herpertz
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hinney
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D019943:Amino Acid Substitution; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002032:Bulimia / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D005190:Family; D006580:Genetic Carrier Screening; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium; D009154:Mutation; D009765:Obesity / Q000235:genetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D044105:Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 4 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D044105:Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 4