A new study reveals biological reasons for feelings of anxiety instead of reward in patients with anorexia
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Perhaps the most puzzling symptom of anorexia nervosa – a disorder that tends to occur in young women – is the refusal to eat, resulting in extreme weight loss. While most people have a great deal of difficulty in dieting and losing weight, particularly if a diet extends over many months or years, individuals with anorexia nervosa can literally diet themselves to death. In fact, this disorder has a very high death rate from starvation. A new study, now online in the journal International Journal of Eating Disorders, sheds light on why these symptoms occur in anorexia nervosa.
Most people find eating to be a pleasant and rewarding experience. In contrast, people with anorexia nervosa often say that eating makes them more anxious, and food refusal makes them feel better. Research over the past decade has provided new insights into the brain mechanisms that are associated with the rewarding aspects of eating. One of these brain chemicals is dopamine, which is released when people or animals eat tasty foods.
A study led by Walter Kaye, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Eating Disorder Treatment and Research Program at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, used a brain imaging technology called positron emission tomography (PET), which permits visualization of dopamine function in the brain. In order to provoke dopamine levels in the brain, scientists administered a one-time dose of the drug amphetamine, which releases dopamine in the brain. [continue reading…]
They would love to be perfect mothers. Instead, they feel ashamed and inadequate, and fearful that their children might inherit their eating difficulties.
Imagine an ordinary Norwegian home, where Mum is having dinner with her three-year-old son. Underneath the surface of this seemingly idyllic scene, the woman is fighting a fierce battle with herself, thinking: “I wish he could finish eating, so I can go to the bathroom and throw up.” [continue reading…]
Like most women I get  preoccupied with my weight. 🙁  Don’t get me wrong… although I obsess, it doesn’t consume me. One of the most popular searched posts (daily) on this blog is Media influence on women’s body image. Recently I have been struck by one young girl in her mid 20’s who uses the same gym as I do. Why? Clearly borderline anorexic she exercises with fanatical zeal, her body disguised in baggy sweats, her shoulders which are visible show bones and no muscle tone. I observe sadly as she weighs herself at least 3 times during the course of each workout! So maybe its not surprising that today in my daily newspaper trawl, both the following articles captured my attention.
In the New York TimesTara Parker Pope looks at how books on anorexia can inadvertently become how-to books for teens struggling with the disease Link to read this article and also the full review of Skin and Bone.
More discussion in The Guardian of how women’s weight issues impact their lives in Decca Aitenkhead’s interviewwith Susie Orbach author of Fat is a Feminist Issue
and new book Bodies: Big Ideas/Small Books Link to read this articleinterview
Can a novel convey, however inadvertently, an allure to anorexic behavior?Are you comfortable with your body? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Eating disorder specialists are seeing more and more women over 50 years old and men in their clinics.
Members of the Mental Health Group of the British Dietetic Association are reporting a change in the type of service users they are seeing. Over the past few years they have witnessed more diagnosed cases of eating disorders in both men and older women.<
This is backed up by research which shows that increasingly boys and men are suffering with eating disorders and related body image problems. Some have full-blown conditions such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia or binge eating
Eating disorders comprise both psychological and physiological components, and as a result treatments require an integrated understanding of the nutritional, physiological and psychological aspects of these disorders. [continue reading…]
