Author: Tetyana

Dopamine and Anorexia Nervosa: Tackling the Myths – Part I (Intro)

Tetyana 4 Comments

There is this prevalent myth on Tumblr eating disorder blogs that increased dopamine (DA) receptor activity or increased DA signalling causes anorexia nervosa. It has left me quite perplexed, as I have never come across a single paper that has shown increased DA activity causes anorexia nervosa. My research for this post also left me empty-handed. I have no idea where this myth comes from, but I thought I’d blog about what research on DA activity in anorexia has shown. This topic will take me a few (not necessarily successive) posts to cover. This first post is a very brief introduction to DA signalling.

First, what is dopamine?

DA is a neurotransmitter–a molecule that one neuron releases to another in order to send a signal. Dopamine is released from one cell (the presynaptic neuron) and binds to its receptors on the other (postsynaptic) neuron. There are five different DA receptors … Continue reading →

Self-Harm is Common Among Adolescents With Eating Disorders

Tetyana 6 Comments

Self-harm or non-suicidal self-injury (SI) are common among adolescents, particularly among adolescents with eating disorders. Previous studies have shown that SI seems to be associated with sexual trauma, mood disorders, and substance abuse. The present study aimed to find out whether (1) SI is associated with any specific eating disorder symptoms, such as bingeing, or purging, and (2) how often clinicians screen for SI behaviours (and whether particular patients are more likely to be screened than others).

Dr. Rebecka Peebles and colleagues looked retrospectively at intake evaluations of 1,432 patients between the ages of 10-21 (mean age 15). Three quarters of the patients were Caucasian, and slightly over 9% were male.  Sixty-three percent had an intake diagnosis of eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS).

MAIN FINDINGS FOR AIM 1

  • Of those screened for SI behaviours, 40.8% engaged in SI
  • Cutting was the most common SI behaviour reported (85%)
  • Bingeing/purging was
… Continue reading →

Extreme Medical Negligence: Failure to Feed Patients with Anorexia Nervosa

Tetyana 15 Comments

They are crazy stories, really. It is hard to believe they are true.

A 28-year-old woman with anorexia nervosa complained about weakness and nausea following the insertion of a feeding tube. Her gastroenterologist sent her to the emergency room (ER). The woman was in the emergency room for two days without receiving any food. She was discharged home after she was told her lab tests and X-rays came back normal.  Unfortunately, her X-rays weren’t normal. Her gastroenterologist determined she had a bowel obstruction and sent her back to the hospital. She lost a substantial amount of weight in those 3 days.

The second story is even worse.

A 26-year-old woman with a feeding tube was discharged prematurely from a residential facility. She began to feel dizzy and weak, and was admitted to a hospital. She did not receive any food for the 6 days she was there, despite extremely … Continue reading →

Can Puberty Affect the Development of Eating Disorders?

Tetyana 3 Comments

Eating disorders typically begin in adolescence. One common explanation for this is that during adolescence females are increasingly exposed to the media, thin models, and dieting. While this is probably true to some extent, it doesn’t explain why the rates of eating disorders are quite low despite the high levels of exposure to thin models in the media. Out of 100 girls, only a handful develop eating disorders, yet all of them are exposed to the same magazines and TV shows.

This means there must be some other factors that differ between this group of girls. One hypothesis is that hormonal changes during puberty may modulate the genetic risk factors for eating disorders. These changes may “turn on” genes that predispose individuals to eating disorders. Previous research has shown that genetic factors modulate disordered eating (eating disorders have a high heritability), but how? What are the mechanisms of this modulation?… Continue reading →

The “Double Life” of Bulimia Nervosa: Patients’ Perspectives

Tetyana 57 Comments

My psychiatrist once compared my life to Dexter. He said I was living a double life. It was the summer before my final year in undergrad and I was working in a neuroscience lab. Yet things were so bad that at one point I was very close to quitting and doing Day Program treatment. (I didn’t, and things ended up getting better, thankfully.)

This post is going to be more personal than most. One, I can relate well to the topic. Two, I feel that I can give voice to it under my real name. (As opposed to just discuss it abstractly, or anonymously. There’s nothing wrong with being anonymous, but I feel that, for many reasons I am in a position where I don’t feel I have to be anonymous anymore.)

I think this is important because there are a lot of myths that surround eating disorders and … Continue reading →

Yoga in the Treatment of Eating Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Tetyana 3 Comments

Exercise can be great for your body and for your mental health. It is well accepted that exercise can decrease anxiety, increase concentration, and generally improve mood. But too much exercise can be harmful, especially during recovery from a restrictive eating disorder. So is there a way to reap the benefits of exercise without the risks? And if yes, can this exercise actually help in the recovery process?

One form of exercise that has gained a lot of popularity is yoga. Initial studies on the use of yoga in treatment of anxiety and depression seem promising (though I haven’t checked them out in detail myself) (Mishra et al., 2001; Sahasi et al., 1989; Pilkington et al., 2005; Mitchell et al., 2007). So, can it be used as an adjunct with regular eating disorder treatment? Can it decrease eating disorder symptoms?

In this randomized controlled study (RCT – randomized controlled … Continue reading →

Anorexia Nervosa: Can We Blame The Season Of Birth?

Tetyana

You might have heard that individuals born between the months of June – August (or sometimes March – August) have a higher chance of developing anorexia nervosa. But is it true? A lot of studies have been done to investigate the question of whether a season of birth (or a month) correlates with a higher risk of anorexia or bulimia nervosa. The results are inconsistent, weak, and fraught with methodological problems.

But first, how could seasons (or the average temperature during birth, or conception) have an effect on the etiology of eating disorders? What’s the hypothesis?

There seem to be two main ideas (summarized in Winje et al., 2012):

  1. alterations in neuropsychological function as a result of sunlight exposure during gestation or postpartum, maternal infections during pregnancy, or nutritional changes (seasonal variation in nutrients, vitamins)
  2. alterations in fertility/reproductive patterns of the parents due to cultural influences, disordered eating in the
… Continue reading →

Will The Real Vegetarian Please Stand Up? – Part 1

Tetyana 12 Comments

When my younger sister first told me she wanted to become a vegetarian, I was worried. My biggest fear was that she would, like I did, develop an eating disorder. In high-school, I didn’t eat meat for roughly 14 months, and though I can’t be sure now of what my reasons were at the time, in retrospect, I do think in large part it was just a convenient way to avoid yet another food group. It was a legitimate reason to restrict my intake.

But is there any evidence that this behaviour (becoming vegetarian as a convenient way to restrict intake) is common among individuals with eating disorders? What is the relationship between dietary restraint, eating disorder symptoms, and vegetarianism? Is vegetarianism a risk factor for developing an eating disorder or do eating disorders lead many to adopt a vegetarian diet as a socially acceptable excuse to avoid eating specific … Continue reading →

Are All Anorexia Nervosa Patients Just Afraid of Being Fat? – Part 2

Tetyana 7 Comments

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while (or literature on this topic) you know the answer is no. I’ve blogged about this before, but I think it is a topic that needs a lot more coverage because the myths that all anorexia nervosa patients are just afraid of being fat, that they lose weight just to be thin, and that thin models are to blame for AN are still very common.

As you’ll see, I am not claiming that this isn’t true for some patients. Instead, what I am claiming is that it is not true for all patients.

And a big personal goal of mine with this blog is to broad the conversation about eating disorders. Let’s get away from stereotypes and painting all anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa patients in the same light. Let’s instead have meaningful discussions about research on eating disorders, about … Continue reading →

3 Personality Subtypes in Eating Disorder Patients: Which One Fits You?

Tetyana 10 Comments

Scientists love classifying and categorizing things they study. But it can be a double-edged sword. Classification can lead to new insights about etiology or new treatment methods. But classification can also hamper our understanding. For example, researchers like to classify and study anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as if they are two wholly separate disorders, but clinicians know that most patients fluctuate between diagnoses, and as a result often fall into the eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) category.

Nonetheless, if we keep in mind that the way in which we classify things can be very artificial and may not necessarily reflect some fundamental truths about the subject matter, we can focus on extracting the insights gained from the classifications.

In the case of eating disorders, classifying patients into subtypes may be useful for developing successful treatment approaches suited for particular patient subgroups.

Previous research on this topic has identified … Continue reading →