Anorexia Nervosa – a deadly disorder

Anorexia is a serious disorder with high mortality that currently lacks efficient therapy. Approximately 1% of young women are affected. Little is known about the disorder cause, but it has been shown that those affected seem to have an inborn sensitivity to external stimuli that can trigger the disease. An example of such external stimuli is the current beauty ideal. The cause(s) for the inborn sensitivity has, however, not been discovered yet.

We have interesting data suggesting that this inborn sensitivity could be associated with oxidative stress of the neurons in the feeding center of the brain. Our research results indicate that these neurons are shut down during extreme starvation, as in anorexia, and that they may even die as a cause of the starvation. This could explain the lost hunger and satiety that many anorectic patients report, even after recovery. It may also explain why it is so difficult to “get a grip” and start eating once affected by anorexia. Nobody would expect a patient with Parkinson’s disease to “shape up” and stop the involuntary movements caused by neuronal death in the motor center of the brain. Our research is thus an important contribution to the battle against anorexia nervosa that affects so many young women and men every year.

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