Still appetite and still confused: Riposte to Bodenlos, Borckardt and George

In their defence of their original paper, Bodenlos, Borckardt and George (2007) maintain that there is little consensus in measurement of food craving and their own measure bears some resemblance to others. However, we argue that a useful concept of craving, and its measurement, must be distinguished from more general measures of appetite. Furthermore, we believe that their defence of their own significant finding misses the point that it is size, but not direction, of change that is altered by VNS. Finally, their multiple regression cannot be meaningfully interpreted with any confidence, not just because of the likelihood of overdetermination, but because the dependent variable, i.e. the direction of change of appetitive ratings, was not shown to be a reliable change, let alone an effect of VNS.