Questions Your Doctor May Ask - and Why!
During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in his assesment of the symptom: Excessive hunger.
These may include a physical examination or other medical tests.
Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing
your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information
you can share with your doctor may help them with their diagnosis.
Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:
- How long have you had excessive hunger?
Why: to establish if acute or chronic.
- Are you sleep deprived?
Why: e.g. shift worker, sleep debt, insomnia - may cause excessive hunger.
- What is the age of the person with increased appetite?
Why: e.g. it is normal for pubertal adolescents to have increased appetite.
- Past medical history?
Why: e.g. diabetes, Grave's disease.
- Past psychiatric history?
Why: e.g. bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, bulimia nervosa.
- Medications?
Why: e.g. steroid medications, some antibiotics, some antidepressants, some pain relief medications and the newer antipsychotic medications may stimulate the appetite and cause weight gain.
- Illicit drug use?
Why: e.g. marijuana intoxication may cause the "munchies".
Questions your doctor may ask about related symptoms:
Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse
your condition. These may include:
- Excessive thirst, frequent urination and weight loss?
Why: the presence of these symptoms with excessive hunger would suggest either diabetes mellitus or Grave's disease.
- Weight gain?
Why: may suggest an insulinoma, Cushing's disease or Obesity.
- Symptoms of anxiety, depression or other emotional symptoms?
Why: may suggest that excessive hunger is due to bulimia nervosa, hysteria, manic phase of bipolar affective disorder.
- Diarrhea?
Why: suggests disorder may be related to a malabsorption syndrome, intestinal bypass or a gastrointestinal fistula.
- If diarrhea, what is the nature of the stools?
Why: e.g. fatty, pale colored, extremely smelly stools that float in the toilet and are difficult to flush away is called steatorrhea due to excess fat in the stool and are characteristic of malabsorption of nutrients which may be due to celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis, previous gastrectomy and cystic fibrosis.
- Symptoms of diabetes mellitus
Why: e.g. frequent urination, excessive thirst, weight loss, fatigue, excessive hunger.
- Symptoms of Grave's disease
Why: e.g. preference for cooler weather, increased appetite, heart palpitations, increased sweating, nervousness, irritability, diarrhea, lack of menstrual periods and proptosis (forward displacement of the eyeball).
- Symptoms of bulimia nervosa?
Why: e.g. recurrent episodes of binge eating; preoccupation with food and weight changes; consumption of high calorie, easily digested food during the binge; termination of the binge by abdominal pain, sleep or vomiting; inconspicuous eating during a binge; repeated attempts to lose weight by frequent vomiting, fasting or use of laxatives or diuretics; frequent fluctuations of more than 4.5kg; awareness of abnormal eating pattern and fear of not being able to stop voluntarily; depressed mood after binge. May have a previous history of anorexia nervosa.
- Symptoms of Cushing's syndrome?
Why: e.g. weight gain especially central abdominal, change of appearance, moon-like face, thin skin, easy bruising, excessive facial hair growth, acne, muscle weakness, lack of or rare menstrual periods, poor libido, depression, psychosis, insomnia, frequent urination, excessive thirst, growth arrest in children.
- Headache?
Why: may suggest certain brain tumors (especially large pituitary tumors that invade the hypothalamus and craniopharyngioma a type of hypothalamic brain tumor) or encephalitis that can cause increased appetite.
» Next page: News about Excessive hunger
Rate This Website
What do you think about the features of this website?
Take our user survey and have your say:
Website User Survey
Medical Tools & Articles:
Next articles:
Tools & Services:
Medical Articles:
Forums & Message Boards
- Ask or answer a question at the Boards:
