Why Anorexic Patients Cling to Their Eating Disorder

Processes in brain metabolism that can explain why anorexic patients drastically reduce food intake, and are often incapable of changing their behaviour

Processes in brain metabolism that can explain why anorexic patients drastically reduce food intake, and are often incapable of changing their behaviour, according to a study by scientists at Heidelberg University Hospital.

Writing about their work in the prestigious American Journal of Psychiatry, the researchers revealed that they examined a total of 30 young women with and without anorexia by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Anorexia Nervosa - Types Complications Causes Treatment FAQs
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder most commonly found among teenage girls. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a very low body weight, generally defined as 15% below the Body Mass Index.

The MRI device recorded the level of blood flow in various areas of the brain.

It may be useful to note here that greater blood flow indicates higher metabolism, and thus greater activity.

The participants underwent a test that measured their capacity for flexible behaviour modification of recently learned behaviour.

As part of this test, they were shown a rapid sequence of various geometric shapes, and asked to match them. After one test run, the matching principle was changed.

"In this study, we confirmed that anorexic patients cling to familiar behavioral responses more frequently than healthy subjects, thus suppressing alternative behavior," said Dr. Hans-Christoph Friederich, head of the working group for eating disorders.

Sleep Eating Disorders Causes Symptoms Diagnosis Treatment
Sleep-related eating disorders are abnormal eating behaviors that occur during night. Sleep related eating disorder is a part of parasomnias.

Analysing the MRI images, the researchers observed that in patients with anorexia compared with healthy subjects, a certain network pathway between the cortex and the diencephalon is less activated.

The researchers say that this network pathway plays a decisive role in initiating and controlling actions under rapidly changing environmental demands.

About Lifestyle and Osteoporosis
Encyclopedia section of medindia briefly explains about Lifestyle and Osteoporosis

They say that the study's findings contribute decisively to a better understanding of anorexia.

In particular, say that researchers, the results make it clear that neurobiological factors are involved and sustain the clinical symptoms.

Given that psychological and neurobiological factors can influence each other, the researchers say that this may lead to new therapy approaches for anorexia.

"We have developed a treatment program for anorexia patients that specifically targets the flexible modification of behavioural responses," says Dr. Friederich.

In this way, the researchers hope to improve the success of psychotherapeutic treatment.

They believe that the MRI examination of the brain could contribute to measure the success of treatment.

Source-ANI
RAS