Study Tries to Explain Anorexia Symptoms

[HuckleB]

Study Tries to Explain Anorexia Symptoms

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/13/AR2005071301572.html

"Women who suffer from anorexia have increased chemical activity in a part of the brain that controls reward and reinforcement, something that may explain why they are driven to lose weight but don't get any pleasure from it, according to a new study.

Researchers used brain-imaging technology on 10 women who had recovered from anorexia and 12 healthy women. In the anorexic women, they found overactivity by dopamine receptors in a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. Dopamine is a brain chemical that is associated with regulating pleasure.

"The take-home message is dopamine in this area may be very important in how we respond to stimuli, how we view positive and negative reinforcement," said Dr. Walter Kaye, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and one of the researchers involved in the study.

Dr. Guido Frank, a child psychiatry fellow at the University of California at San Diego and also a leader of the study, said the hope is that the research can lead to the development of drugs to treat anorexia.

..."


Maybe we're getting somewhere?