Brain Scans Give Clues to Eating Disorders

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Genetic research and brain imaging studies are uncovering the biologic basis for eating disorders such as the binge-purge condition bulimia nervosa, a researcher said here Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

If investigators are able to determine the underlying basis for these conditions, they may also be able to develop more effective therapies, said Dr. Walter H. Kaye of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Several previous studies have suggested that such conditions may have a genetic component. For example, Kaye noted that people with eating disorders may have a disturbance of the brain chemical serotonin, which could possible be inherited. He and colleagues are involved in an ongoing study attempting to identify genetic factors that play a role in the development of the eating disorders anorexia and bulimia.

``There are areas of the genome that may be candidates, but no individual genes have been identified yet,'' he said. ``There is probably not one single gene responsible for these conditions, but there is more likely a combination of genes.''

In a study presented here, he pointed out that brain scans have indicated that recovering bulimics may have serotonin activity that differs from that of healthy volunteers. Differences were found in the frontal cortex, a portion of the brain that is involved with mood and impulse control. This provides further support that there may be some biologic component to the development of bulimia, in which mood and impulse control is thought to play a factor. Studies involving brain scans of recovering anorexics are ongoing.

``While treatment for eating disorders has been somewhat successful, there are still some patients who don't respond well to treatment,'' Kaye told Reuters Health. ``We hope that a better understanding of brain mechanisms will lead to better treatment. There are probably pathways in the brain that regulate mood and impulse control. Conditions such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and the eating disorders probably involve those pathways, but in different ways.''

Reference Source 89

For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick Prevention Resources".