Anorexia and undereating

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by food restriction and high mortality rate. Research has identified consistently changes in brain monoamine neurotransmitter systems, some of which persist after recovery. There is also a host of neuroendocrine alterations during the course of illness, and it has been hypothesized that state-related changes in stress, gut, and sex hormone expression may contribute to the pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa. Recent human brain imaging research on the reward circuitry has helped us to better understand this illness. Those studies provide empiric evidence to develop models that center around the role of dopamine during development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa and integrate the neuroendocrine system and its interaction with reward processing. Those new models together with advanced basic science research provide hope that we will find treatments that can target directly the disease mechanism of anorexia nervosa and treat the disorder more effectively.