Summary: | The motivation for the main body of work presented in this thesis arose from three sources. Initially, the need to develop and test a reliable, portable and unobtrusive method of observing human feeding behaviour in a clinical setting. Secondly, curiosity concerning the serotonergic modulation of feeding. In practice, to examine the effects of the 5-HT reuptake inhibitor and anti-depressant fluoxetine on food intake and choice, body weight and subjective states in both non-depressed normal-weight and obese subjects. The third and final impetus arose from the observation that, in rats, the expression of meal-induced satiety offered a background against which to examine the possible mechanisms underlying the effects of acute and chronic administration of serotonergic agents on consummatory and behavioural functioning.
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