Brain chemistry behind Anorexia
POSTED April 1, 2009 - 18:11 | POSTED BY Jyoti Pal
Last edited by Sham Kamboj on April 1, 2009 - 19:04
Australia, April 1: According to a new revolutionary study the state of being anorexic may be closely related to brain chemistry. The revelation is a marked departure from the earlier thought that anorexia is caused due to cultural and familial causes.
The study was conducted on 200 anorexia sufferers from Britain, the U.S. and Norway. The patients were mostly females aged twelve to twenty-five and were being treated at private hospitals in Edinburgh and Maidenhead that are part of the Huntercombe medical group. Dr. Ian Frampton, pediatric psychologist at London's Great Ormond St Hospital for Children led the research.
"Our research shows that certain kids' brains develop in such a way that makes them more vulnerable to commonly known risk factors for eating disorders such as the size zero debate, media representations of very skinny women and bad parents," Dr Frampton said.
The study found that 70 percent of the patients had suffered damage to their neurotransmitters. This had resulted in subtle changes in the structure of their brains. The study suggests that one in every few hundred girls may be affected in this way and this condition is a result of random factors and that diet and environmental factors have little role to play in this.
"Arguments that social factors, such as girls feeling under pressure to lose weight to look like high-profile women in the media, contain logical flaws because almost everyone is exposed to them, yet only a small percentage of young people get anorexia," Dr Frampton said.
He added, "Those things are important but there must be other factors, involving genetics and science that make some young people much more vulnerable than others."
The researchers revealed that the "imperfect wiring" of the brain seen in anorexia is similar to that seen in people with dyslexia, depressiondefine or hyperactivity. Therefore the present research could pave the way for the drugs to be developed to treat eating disorders. Such drugs would work like antidepressants and alter brain chemistry.
