Rare diseases · Sign or symptom
Polyphagia
Voracious appetite
HP:0002591
What it means
A neurological anomaly with gross overeating associated with an abnormally strong desire or need to eat.
Rare diseases that can present with this46
Very common80–99%
11- Hypotonia-cystinuria syndrome
- Obesity due to congenital leptin deficiency
- Obesity due to leptin receptor gene deficiency
- Obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency
- Obesity due to prohormone convertase I deficiency
- Obesity due to pro-opiomelanocortin deficiency
- Obesity due to SIM1 deficiency
- Prader-Willi syndrome due to paternal deletion of 15q11q13 type 2
- Rapid-onset childhood obesity-hypothalamic dysfunction-hypoventilation-autonomic dysregulation syndrome
- Severe early-onset obesity-insulin resistance syndrome due to SH2B1 deficiency
- Trisomy 18p syndrome
Common30–79%
22- 14q11.2microduplication syndrome
- 2q23.1microdeletion syndrome
- 6q16microdeletion syndrome
- Alström syndrome
- Angelman syndrome
- Angelman syndrome due to imprinting defect in 15q11-q13
- Helsmoortel-Van der Aa syndrome
- Insulinoma
- Kleine-Levin syndrome
- MYT1L-related developmental delay-intellectual disability-obesity syndrome
- Paternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 1 syndrome
- Pediatric-onset Graves disease
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Prader-Willi syndrome due to imprinting mutation
- Prader-Willi syndrome due to maternal uniparental disomy of chromosome 15
- Prader-Willi syndrome due to paternal 15q11q13 deletion
- Prader-Willi syndrome due to paternal deletion of 15q11q13 type 1
- Pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1A
- Pseudohypoparathyroidism type 1C
- Schaaf-Yang syndrome
- SIM1-related Prader-Willi-like syndrome
- X-linked acrogigantism
Sometimes5–29%
12- 1p36deletion syndrome
- 7q11.23microduplication syndrome
- Autosomal dominant hyperinsulinism due to Kir6.2 deficiency
- Autosomal dominant hyperinsulinism due to SUR1 deficiency
- Craniopharyngioma
- Huntington disease
- Hyperinsulinism due to HNF1A deficiency
- Hyperinsulinism due to UCP2 deficiency
and 4 more in this range
The range is how often this sign appears among people diagnosed with each disease — it is not a probability of having any of them. Many of these signs also occur in common, non-rare conditions. A sign on this page is a conversation to have with a clinician, not a conclusion.
Part of the broader category
Also called: Hyperphagia · Increased appetite
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Start free with EleplanThis page uses the Human Phenotype Ontology (2026-06-23) — Human Phenotype Ontology Consortium, hpo.jax.org. Disease associations from Orphanet (INSERM), CC BY 4.0. Content is educational and is not medical advice.