Cravings before a loss of control (LOC) over food consumption is a potential opportunity for intervention in patients with binge eating disorder (BED). 

A recent study used responsive deep brain stimulation (DBS) to record nucleus accumbens (NAc) electrophysiology during food cravings before LOC eating in two patients with BED and severe obesity. Increased NAc low-frequency oscillations, prominent during food cravings, guided DBS delivery. 

Over six months, the study showed improved self-control of food intake and weight loss. 

This study shows success in restoring inhibitory control with electrophysiologically-guided NAc DBS. Further work with increased sample sizes is needed to determine the scalability of this method.

Source: Shivacharan RS, Rolle CE, Barbosa DAN. et al. Pilot study of responsive nucleus accumbens deep brain stimulation for loss-of-control eating. Nat Med. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-01941-w