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