By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

The discovery of patients with "gourmand syndrome" came to light during an assessment of 723 patients with known or suspected single brain lesions. Thirty-six patients in the group demonstrated similar unusual behaviors manifesting as a sudden compulsive interest in thinking about and eating fine foods. All but two of the 36 patients had lesions in the right anterior area of the brain.

"Gourmand syndrome is a rare benign eating disorder strongly linked to damage of the right hemisphere of the brain," said neurologist Theodor Landis, MD, of Geneva, Switzerland, co-author of the study. "Abnormal changes in the structure of the brain, such as stroke, tumors, and seizures are some of the causes of these lesions. This strange eating behavior does not correspond to any known category of eating disorders."

One patient was a business man who formerly would have preferred a tennis match to a fine dinner until he suffered a hemorrhage deep in the right side of his brain. He then became so obsessed with fine food that he couldn't stop talking or writing about food. The patient also couldn't resist satisfying his cravings for gourmet foods.

Another patient was a political journalist and an average eater who suffered an anterior right hemisphere stroke. He became so preoccupied with food that he was unable to continue his career after he recovered from the stroke. However, he was able to make a successful transition to a new position as a columnist for the fine dining section of his newspaper.

Not every person who has a right-sided brain lesion will develop this syndrome, but the strong correlation between the two seen in this study may provide neurologists with a clue to better understand certain compulsive and eating-oriented behaviors.

"This new syndrome shows the public that addiction and compulsion disorders, even ones that aren't debilitating, can be due to damage to a limited area of the brain," said psychologist Marianne Regard, PhD, of Zurich, Switzerland, co-author of the study.

The study on gourmand syndrome appears in the May 1997 issue of Neurology.