Abnormalities in the brain circuitry of anorexics may help to explain the baffling symptoms of the eating disorder, according to a review paper published online this week in Nature Reviews Neuroscience. In the paper, Walter Kaye, MD, professor of psychiatry and director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of California, San Diego, and colleagues discuss dysfunction in certain neural circuits of the brain which may help explain the origins of anorexia, and behaviors such as relentless dieting.

Study co-author Martin Paulus, UC San Diego Professor of Psychiatry and head of UC San Diego's Laboratory of Biological Dynamics and Theoretical Medicine, discusses the technology behind the findings: "Brain-imaging studies also show that individuals with anorexia have alterations in those parts of the brain involved with bodily sensations, such as sensing the rewarding aspects of pleasurable foods ... Anorexics may literally not recognize when they are hungry."

Dr. Kaye commented on the importance of the findings: "Currently, we don't have very effective means of treating people with anorexia. ... Consequently, many patients with the disorder remain ill for years or eventually die from the disease, which has the highest death rate of any psychiatric disorder. ... Anorexia is very complicated, and there needs to be a paradigm shift in understanding its underlying cause. ... We're just beginning to understand how the brain is working in people with this disorder."

(Source: www.sciencedaily.com)

Labels: anorexia, science

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