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Obesity has limited behavioural overlap with addiction and psychiatric phenotypes /
Obesity has limited behavioural overlap with addiction and psychiatric phenotypes
- Uku Vainik
- Bratislav Misic
- Yashar Zeighami
- Andréanne Michaud
- René Mõttus
- Alain Dagher
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Description: Obesity is a widespread health condition1, likely driven by increased availability of inexpensive high-calorie food2. People vary in their behavioural response to food plenty, with some staying lean and others developing obesity. Such variation is likely driven by behavioural styles3,4, as behaviour accounts for entire food intake 5. A prominent hypothesis is that people with obesity respond to rewards similarly to people with addictions such as alcohol abuse or smoking6. For instance, perceived overeating or “Uncontrolled Eating” (UE) is the most common obesity-associated personality trait7 and resembles the perceived loss of control seen in drug addiction. Similarly, both obesity and addictive behaviours have similar links with broad personality domains3. Here, we seek to empirically test whether obesity and UE overlap behaviourally with addiction and psychiatric disorders, collectively referred to as phenotypes. We test for behavioural similarity by linking the personality profiles of each phenotype. NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R/3) profiles of 28 phenotypes were extracted from 22 studies, encompassing summary statistics from 18,611 unique participants. Obesity had moderate and UE high behavioural similarity with addictions. UE also overlapped behaviourally with most psychiatric phenotypes, whereas obesity was behaviourally similar with mood disorders and certain personality disorders. Facet-based phenotype profiles provided more information than domain-based profiles. In summary, detailed personality profiling is a useful tool for identifying underlying behavioural similarities between phenotypes.