We describe substantial and persistent changes in eating, including hyperphagia, occurring after closed head injury. These changes caused considerable difficulties in management. We suggest that these changes are not a consequence of associated memory impairment, but arise as a result of pathological changes in the brain consequent directly on the injury.
Changes in eating behavior have been described in a number of different organic brain diseases. These include Alzheimer's Disease (Hope, Fairburn & Goodwin, 1989)) Pick's Disease (Cummings & Duchen, 1981), Parkinson's Disease (Rosenberg, , Herpes Simplex Encephalitis (Hierons, , brain tumours (Beal, Kleinman, Ojemann & Hochberg, 198l), and Huntington's Chorea . In a few cases eating changes accompany other behavior change, in particular as part of the Kluver-Bucy syndrome but in most instances this is not the case. It is apparent that memory impairment may occur in conjunction with changes in eating but the interrelation between the memory changes and the altered eating is unclear . Head injury may be followed by dramatic and persistent changes in behavior of many types (Levin, 1982). There have also been reports of metabolic changes shortly after head injury . We report here a case of persistent alteration in eating behavior following head injury.