Ibrahim Ben Razek MD, Maria Isabel Vargas MD, Daniel S. Schechter MD, Margitta Seeck MD
<p>Craving, addiction, and compulsive eating leading to obesity are major public health problems incurring estimated direct and indirect costs of up to $600 billion.<span><sup>1</sup></span> The opioid crisis, declared as a public health emergency in 2017, showed that there is still insufficient understanding of craving, thereby hampering the ability to treat it effectively. Studies have strived to identify the neuronal correlates of addiction,<span><sup>2</sup></span> leading to the isolation of brain networks mainly based in the frontal lobe. Evidence from experimental animal and human studies have suggested a major role of the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC).<span><sup>2, 3</sup></span> However, to our knowledge, there are no reports of new-onset craving due to a circumscribed lesion that corroborate this notion. This report presents the first case of craving, targeting Swiss chocolate, due to minor postoperative fronto-orbital bleeding, dissipating over time as the lesion disappeared.</p><p>A patient aged in his 50s, right-handed, with an unremarkable medical and psychiatric history was admitted to the emergency department after a first generalized epileptic seizure. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed a voluminous mass suggesting a frontobasal meningioma with surrounding edema (Fig 1A). He was prescribed levetiracetam 500 mg b.i.d. Four days later, he underwent neurosurgery with complete tumor resection, leaving a small compressive hematoma in the left OFC (Fig 1B–D). Histopathology confirmed a meningioma, World Health Organization grade I. He left hospital after 9 days with a normal physical examination. To determine if his antiseizure medication (levetiracetam) could be discontinued, he was referred to ambulatory epileptology.</p><p>There were no further seizures or suspicious events, awake or asleep. Levetiracetam was well tolerated.</p><p>Two weeks after surgery, the patient started to notice a strong craving for chocolate, particularly, Swiss dark chocolate with hazelnuts, and had to consume at least 200–300 g daily. He became irritable and nervous if his wife did not purchase this special type of chocolate, and would search for it throughout metropolitan Geneva, even after shops closed (eg, driving 30 min to the airport to buy this specific chocolate). He never lost control (eg, became physically violent) or suffered from significant withdrawal symptoms (eg, sweating) from his newly developed craving. However, he would rant and rail at his family if he did not get his chocolate.</p><p>Before neurosurgery, the patient's desire for chocolate was not particularly strong. He did not smoke, and only drank alcohol occasionally. He would ride his bike regularly, without changes in the frequency or intensity of his physical activity from the time before to the time after the operation. He impressed the neurology team with his slim, sporty figure without evidence of weight gain.</p><p>His chocolate craving decreased gradually 4 months postopera
{"title":"Newly Developed Craving for Swiss Chocolate","authors":"Ibrahim Ben Razek MD, Maria Isabel Vargas MD, Daniel S. Schechter MD, Margitta Seeck MD","doi":"10.1002/ana.27023","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ana.27023","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Craving, addiction, and compulsive eating leading to obesity are major public health problems incurring estimated direct and indirect costs of up to $600 billion.<span><sup>1</sup></span> The opioid crisis, declared as a public health emergency in 2017, showed that there is still insufficient understanding of craving, thereby hampering the ability to treat it effectively. Studies have strived to identify the neuronal correlates of addiction,<span><sup>2</sup></span> leading to the isolation of brain networks mainly based in the frontal lobe. Evidence from experimental animal and human studies have suggested a major role of the orbito-frontal cortex (OFC).<span><sup>2, 3</sup></span> However, to our knowledge, there are no reports of new-onset craving due to a circumscribed lesion that corroborate this notion. This report presents the first case of craving, targeting Swiss chocolate, due to minor postoperative fronto-orbital bleeding, dissipating over time as the lesion disappeared.</p><p>A patient aged in his 50s, right-handed, with an unremarkable medical and psychiatric history was admitted to the emergency department after a first generalized epileptic seizure. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed a voluminous mass suggesting a frontobasal meningioma with surrounding edema (Fig 1A). He was prescribed levetiracetam 500 mg b.i.d. Four days later, he underwent neurosurgery with complete tumor resection, leaving a small compressive hematoma in the left OFC (Fig 1B–D). Histopathology confirmed a meningioma, World Health Organization grade I. He left hospital after 9 days with a normal physical examination. To determine if his antiseizure medication (levetiracetam) could be discontinued, he was referred to ambulatory epileptology.</p><p>There were no further seizures or suspicious events, awake or asleep. Levetiracetam was well tolerated.</p><p>Two weeks after surgery, the patient started to notice a strong craving for chocolate, particularly, Swiss dark chocolate with hazelnuts, and had to consume at least 200–300 g daily. He became irritable and nervous if his wife did not purchase this special type of chocolate, and would search for it throughout metropolitan Geneva, even after shops closed (eg, driving 30 min to the airport to buy this specific chocolate). He never lost control (eg, became physically violent) or suffered from significant withdrawal symptoms (eg, sweating) from his newly developed craving. However, he would rant and rail at his family if he did not get his chocolate.</p><p>Before neurosurgery, the patient's desire for chocolate was not particularly strong. He did not smoke, and only drank alcohol occasionally. He would ride his bike regularly, without changes in the frequency or intensity of his physical activity from the time before to the time after the operation. He impressed the neurology team with his slim, sporty figure without evidence of weight gain.</p><p>His chocolate craving decreased gradually 4 months postopera","PeriodicalId":127,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ana.27023","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141602976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Annals of Neurology: Volume 96, Number 2, August 2024","authors":"","doi":"10.1002/ana.26700","DOIUrl":"10.1002/ana.26700","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":127,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Neurology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.1,"publicationDate":"2024-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ana.26700","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141587692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ziwen Xing MM, Yue Hu MM, Fei Teng PhD, Yunping Song PhD, Zhuang Wu MD, Ronghua Hong MD, Zhuoyu Zhang PhD, Hongkai Gu MM, Kangwen Peng MM, Yijing He PhD, Yuhui Chen BM, Lizhen Pan MD, Lingjing Jin PhD