Brain Scans Show Evidence of Anorexia

According to a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, brain scans of anorexic women taken even after a year of maintaining health weight demonstrate different patterns of activity from those of healthy women. The pattern where the differences are found are in an area of the brain believed to be linked to anxiety and perfectionism, which makes perfect sense.

Says a summary of the report,

The University of Pittsburgh authors said the understanding might help with the development of new treatments.

The work could also explain why people with anorexia nervosa are able to deny themselves food.

…Dr Ian Frampton of Exeter University, who has himself been conducting MRI studies in patients with anorexia, said: “This shows how the brain might be important in eating disorders.

“There may be networks in the brain that make someone vulnerable to developing an eating disorder.”

Establishing a neurobiological cause might help remove some of the blame and stigma that surrounds conditions like anorexia, he said.

A spokeswoman from the eating disorders association “beat” said: “This demonstrates how complex eating disorders are and underlines that they should be treated as a serious mental illness and not a silly diet gone wrong.”

I don’t know about you, but I get really mad when I hear people say that “anyone with an eating disorder is stupid” or “they deserve what they get for being so superficial.” Eating disorders are legitimate mental illness and have nothing to do with intelligence or lack of personal depth, and this is proof.

What do you think? Leave a comment.

Contents © Copyright 2007 Kristen King

Tags: womens health, woman, eating disorder, university of pittsburgh, anorexia, brain scan, mental health