Circuits controlling energy balance and mood: inherently intertwined or just complicated intersections?

Abstract

Recent reports of adverse psychiatric events from seemingly different types of weight loss therapies highlight a previously underestimated overlap between CNS circuits that control energy balance and those that regulate mood. In this Perspective, we discuss a few potential brain sites where the homeostatic and the hedonic pathways may intersect and suggest that a better understanding of both pathways is necessary for the development of more effective and safer antiobesity therapies.