A wealth of studies has investigated the neurobiological underpinnings of anorexia nervosa. In our letter to the editor, we point to a number of ways in which the advances in our understanding of the neurobiology of anorexia nervosa - focusing on neuroimaging studies of brain structure and function - can be translated into treatment. We point to how such advances can: inform psychological treat...

Socio-cultural factors are one of the important variables involved in development of anorexia nervosa. The prevalence of the illness has shown a definite increase in last few decades. Certain other important sociocultural variables like familial interaction patterns, parental attitude towards weight control, desirability for slimness and thinness also have a deciding role. Stress of any kind ca...

T he valid question in a discussion on the etiology of anorexia nervosa is: what caused the willful starvation that stems from the fear of fatness? It is thus important to clarify two fundamental issues at the outset: First, starvation is the cause of many of the features of anorexia nervosa, such as amenorrhea; constipation; insomnia; preoccupation with food, dieting, and shape; bulimia; food ...

Anorexia nervosa is diagnosed by drastic weight loss, a fear of gaining weight, a distorted body image, and, in women, three consecutive episodes of amenorrhea. It is often associated with a compulsive need for exercise, a bright outlook on life, and a high level of competitiveness. It afflicts primarily young women in higher socioeconomic strata who are highly competitive and otherwise overach...

Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback, a technique which encourages slow meditative breathing, was offered to 25 in-patients with various eating disorder diagnoses-anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. We found that this modality had no serious side effects, and was subjectively useful to most participants. An enhanced ability to generate highly coherent HRV patterns i...

Anorexia, epigastric discomfort, nausea, and vomiting may result from disordered gastric motility and emptying. These features have been found in many adults with anorexia nervosa, but have never been investigated in early onset anorexia nervosa. In 14 patients with early onset anorexia nervosa (eight of whom had upper gastrointestinal tract symptoms), six children with other eating disorders, ...

OBJECTIVE The present review addresses the outcome of anorexia nervosa and whether it changed over the second half of the 20th century. METHOD A total of 119 study series covering 5,590 patients suffering from anorexia nervosa that were published in the English and German literature were analyzed with regard to mortality, global outcome, and other psychiatric disorders at follow-up. RESULTS...

Functional brain imaging studies have shown abnormal neural activity in individuals recovered from anorexia nervosa (AN) during both cognitive and emotional task paradigms. It has been suggested that this abnormal activity which persists into recovery might underpin the neurobiology of the disorder and constitute a neural biomarker for AN. However, no study to date has assessed functional chang...

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are severe eating disorders that share many behaviors. Structural and functional brain circuits could provide biological links that those disorders have in common. We recruited 77 young adult women, 26 healthy controls, 26 women with anorexia and 25 women with bulimia nervosa. Probabilistic tractography was used to map white matter connectivity strength across taste...