Baclofen for Binge Eating: An Open-Label Trial

Allegra I. Broft, MD1*, Alexia Spanos, BA1, Rebecca L. Corwin, PhD2
Laurel Mayer, MD1, Joanna Steinglass, MD1, Michael J. Devlin, MD1
Evelyn Attia, MD1, B. Timothy Walsh, MD1

ABSTRACT
Objective: Baclofen is a GABA-B agonist that may be useful in the treatment of substance use disorders, and also reduces ‘binge-like’ eating in rodents. We hypothesized that baclofen might be effective in reducing binge eating episodes in binge eating disorder (BED) and bulimia nervosa (BN).
Method: Seven women with BED (n 5 4) or BN (n 5 3) took baclofen (60 mg/day) for 10 weeks.
Results: Six out of seven patients completed the full 10-week trial. Five out of seven participants (3 BED; 2 BN) demonstrated 50% or greater reduction of frequency of binge eating from beginning to end of the study. Three out of seven participants (2 BED; 1 BN) were free of binge eating at study end. Four out of seven participants elected to continue baclofen at study end. Baclofen was well
tolerated by the participants.
Conclusion: In this open-label trial, baclofen was associated with decreased binge eating frequency in patients with BED and BN. VVC 2007 by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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