Patients suffering from Anorexia Nervosa could lose brain volume

26 June, 2012

There are mainly two types of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is a psychological disorder which leads to more weight loss because such patients have an intense fear of gaining weight.

ANOREXIA IS more common in women than men. It has the highest death toll, when compared with other mental illnesses. Out of hundred, five to twenty people die eventually due to this disease. The disease affects both body and mind, the patient will have a distorted body image.

Usually this eating disorder can become a cause to lose brain volume, but a new research says that with special treatment, the grey matter lost because of dieting can be regained. The research was conducted at Columbia University Center for Eating Disorders in New York City, by Roberto and her colleagues, where they did MRI scans of thirty two female patients suffering with anorexia and compared it with the MRI scans of twenty one healthy women. The report concluded that women with anorexia have less grey matter as compared to healthy women, according to WebMB.

But the good news is, if the patients are fed appropriately and if they are given the treatment for weight restoration, then automatically the grey matter volume in the brain will be restored, according to health.com.

The perfect causes of anorexia nervosa are not known, the main factors which may play a role are genes and hormones. The other factors which trigger the causes are:

Family history – if you have someone in your family suffering with anorexia, then you are most likely to get this disease. The parents who are fond of looks and criticize their children bodies and encourage them to diet - gift them this disorder.

Culture – most of the women want to become 'ideals of beauty', and they are under invariant pressure to maintain a perfect body.

Personal traits – the individual suffering with anorexia may hate the way they look, and they set some hard-to-reach goals for themselves to look perfect.

Lifestyle changes and stressful events.

The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are:

The individual tries to loose weight, which can be fifteen percent below the ideal weight of the person at that age and height.

They use different methods of weight loss such as taking lesser amount of food, fasting, using diuretic medications to urinate more, making themselves sick, using diet pills, doing excessive exercising and using emetics to vomit the food they have taken.

The patients have a fear that they are gaining weight and are becoming fat.

They have less interest in spending time with friends or relatives.

You can consult your family physician for the anorexia treatment. After studying your symptoms in detail he may refer you to a psychologist who is experienced in treating eating disorders. If you have suffered an extreme weight loss, then you may be admitted in a hospital.

The anorexia treatment aims at weight gain of the patient and promoting healthy eating habits. The treatment is mainly psychological such as cognitive analytic therapy (CAT), cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), focal psycho dynamic therapy, and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), according to netdocter.