Anorexia Nervosa
An eating disorder causing people to obsess about weight and what they eat.
Anorexia is characterized by a distorted body image, with an unwarranted fear of being overweight.
Symptoms include trying to maintain a below-normal weight through starvation or too much exercise.
Medical treatment may be needed to restore normal weight. Talk therapy can help with self-esteem and behavior changes.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: W011
Diagnosis: Anorexia Nervosa
US Patients:
World Patients: 3 Mil
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: 12
Brain Area: dorsal anterior cigulate cortex – self-control
Symptoms: low weight, fear of gaining weight, food restriction
Progression: purging, perception of being overweight, self-harming. Feeling full; lost periods and ovulation
Causes: genetic, professions requiring “thinness”,inheritable
Medications: limited benefits found. Therapy: Remission: m-3 years; w-7 years
Therapies: Psychotherapy-reduce need to be thin; more food; CBT
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- Efficacy of post-inpatient aftercare treatments for anorexia nervosa: a systematic review of randomized controlled trialsby Katrin E Giel on October 16, 2021
CONCLUSION: Only a limited number of RCTs investigating aftercare interventions for patients with AN is available. There is no clear evidence favoring any one specific approach for post-inpatient aftercare in adult patients with AN. The field faces many challenges which generally affect intervention research in AN. A specific issue is how to increase uptake of and reduce dropout from aftercare interventions. This calls for better tailoring of interventions to patient needs and the integration of...
- Externalizing your eating disorder: a qualitative interview studyby Marthe M Voswinkel on October 16, 2021
CONCLUSIONS: First, there is considerable variation in the perceived relation between AN and identity. Second, an externalizing approach within treatment may lead to so called epistemic injustice. Awareness of these two facts is of importance for clinicians and the therapeutic relationship because that will help them to refrain from actions that can be perceived as epistemic injustice.
- BDNF levels in adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa increase continuously to supranormal levels 2.5 years after first hospitalizationby Britta Borsdorf on October 16, 2021
CONCLUSION: In this largest longitudinal study to date, we found only nonsignificant reductions in BDNF in the acute stage of anorexia nervosa, possibly because of a shorter illness duration in adolescent patients. Supranormal levels of BDNF at 2.5-year follow-up could represent a pre-existing trait or a consequence of the illness. Because of the anorexigenic effect of BDNF, it might play an important predisposing role for relapse and should be explored further in studies that test causality.
- Self-disgust and disgust sensitivity are increased in anorexia nervosa inpatients, but only self-disgust mediates between comorbid and core psychopathologyby Emilia Kot on October 16, 2021
OBJECTIVE: The possible role of abnormal disgust processing in the development and course of anorexia nervosa (AN) has been emphasized in theoretical models and research. However, disgust toward external stimuli and self-disgust have not yet been investigated together in a clinical sample of AN patients. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to measure these constructs and examine their role in shaping eating pathology in AN patients and healthy controls (HCs), considering comorbid depressive...