Polyphagia

POLYPHAGIA (from the Greek polys—many and phagein—to eat, to devour), overeating, the excessive introduction of food into the organism, which is observed both in normal processes or those bordering on pathology and normality (e.g., in adolescents during periods of rapid growth, in individuals who have been starving for a long time), and in clearly pathological processes. In a narrower sense, polyphagia is understood only as an abnormally large consumption of food caused by one disease or another. In most cases, polyphagia is observed in diseases with an increased need of the organism for nutrients, as is the case, for example, in diabetes mellitus (especially in its so-called “lean” form) and in Graves' disease; moreover, sometimes polyphagia is one of the early signs of these diseases, and its degree serves to a certain extent as an indicator of the severity of the pathological process. Closely related in its origin is the polyphagia observed during recovery from acute infections, especially from typhoid fever. Clinically, polyphagia of the latter kind is a favorable symptom, as it indicates a turning point in the disease and energetic reparative processes in the patient's organism. In all these cases, polyphagia is caused by the true need of the organism for the introduction of food. Along with this, there is polyphagia based on false hunger. This is observed, for example, sometimes in secretory neuroses of the stomach, especially with increased secretion of HCl (hyperchlorhydria, gastrosuccorrhea, gastric ulcer), when frequent meals relieve the patient's unpleasant sensations in the epigastrium, and then sometimes in neurasthenia and hysteria, when, despite the abundant introduction of food, the patient notes the absence of a feeling of satiety (see Lycoria, Aplethia). Finally, there are indications of polyphagia in some psychiatric patients, in particular in the mentally deficient, and sometimes with brain tumors. The feeling of hunger in individual cases of polyphagia can reach an extreme degree, bearing the name bulimia (see). At the basis of, if not all, then the majority of cases of polyphagia, one must assume there lie disorders of the nervous system, either in the form of a decrease in the function of its individual parts [e.g., anesthesia of the nerves of the stomach in neurotic patients with polyphagia based on the absence of a feeling of satiety (Boas)] or in the form of an increase in this function, as is, for example, accepted in relation to cases of bulimia with a true need of the organism for the introduction of food. Literature—see literature for the article Bulimia.