Study provides new clues to obesity epidemic

In a recent study, scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have shown for the first time that the same molecular mechanisms that drive people into drug addiction are behind the compulsion to overeat, pushing people into obesity.

Articles revealing the new discovery appeared in news publications around the world, focusing on the point obese patients have been making for years - that, like addiction to other substances, junk food binging is extremely difficult to stop.

The new study, conducted by Scripps Research Associate Professor Paul J. Kenny and graduate student Paul M. Johnson, was published March 28, 2010 in an advance online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience.