Defining hyperphagia for improved diagnosis and management of MC4R pathway–associated disease: a roundtable summary
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Purpose of review
Hyperphagia is a condition associated with rare obesity-related diseases, presenting as a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors. In October 2023, a group of researchers and clinicians with expert knowledge on hyperphagia convened at the annual ObesityWeek meeting to discuss the need for a unified definition of hyperphagia and key items necessary to improve the identification, assessment, and treatment of hyperphagia in patients with melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) pathway–associated diseases.
Recent findings
The definition of hyperphagia proposed by this group is a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors. Suggested methods to accurately identify patients with hyperphagia include increased physician and parent/caregiver education and standardized efficient screening procedures for use in the clinic. The etiology of hyperphagia as related to abnormal MC4R signaling was also reviewed and proposed as a central cause of the condition across several underlying diseases.
Summary
Given this potential unified underlying pathology, the expert group recommends that patients with hyperphagia undergo genetic testing and that treatment include comprehensive weight-management strategies incorporating lifestyle and pharmacotherapies targeted at addressing hyperphagia.
Hyperphagia is a condition associated with rare obesity-related diseases, presenting as a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors. In October 2023, a group of researchers and clinicians with expert knowledge on hyperphagia convened at the annual ObesityWeek meeting to discuss the need for a unified definition of hyperphagia and key items necessary to improve the identification, assessment, and treatment of hyperphagia in patients with melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4R) pathway–associated diseases.
Recent findings
The definition of hyperphagia proposed by this group is a pathologic, insatiable hunger accompanied by abnormal food-seeking behaviors. Suggested methods to accurately identify patients with hyperphagia include increased physician and parent/caregiver education and standardized efficient screening procedures for use in the clinic. The etiology of hyperphagia as related to abnormal MC4R signaling was also reviewed and proposed as a central cause of the condition across several underlying diseases.
Summary
Given this potential unified underlying pathology, the expert group recommends that patients with hyperphagia undergo genetic testing and that treatment include comprehensive weight-management strategies incorporating lifestyle and pharmacotherapies targeted at addressing hyperphagia.
Date Issued
2025-12-01
Date Acceptance
2024-12-11
Citation
Current Obesity Reports, 2025, 14 (1)
ISSN
2162-4968
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Current Obesity Reports
Volume
14
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© Rhythm Pharmaceuticals 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/39856371
PII: 10.1007/s13679-024-00601-z
Subjects
Hunger
Hyperphagia
MC4R
Melanocortin-4 receptor
Obesity
Hyperphagia
Humans
Receptor, Melanocortin, Type 4
Obesity
Signal Transduction
Genetic Testing
Feeding Behavior
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Article Number
13
Date Publish Online
2025-01-25