Gourmand Syndrome

  • Person is preoccupied with fine food, including its purchase, preparation, presentation, and consumption.
  • Person is less engaged than previously with friends, family, job, and other activities.
  • Thought to be caused by injury to the right side of the brain — tumor, concussion, stroke, etc.
  • Very rare. Only 34 reported cases in medical literature
  • Some symptoms overlap with obsessive-compulsive and addictive disorders.
  • In spite of their “lusting after food” and enthusiastic consumption of it, people with gourmand syndrome do not seem to become fat.
  • Nor do they vomit, abuse laxatives, or engage in other pathological weight-loss behaviors.
  •  They had normal relationships with food before the brain injury.
  • Cognitive, behavioral, and motor impairments are common, probably also related to the brain injury.
  • People are not particularly troubled by their new consuming interest.
  • Treatment should begin with a neurologist or possibly a psychiatrist.