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Study Explains Anorexia as Due to Poor Wiring in the Brain

Social factors are not essential to developing an eating disorder, researchers believe

Mar 30, 2009 17:31 GMT  ·  By
Stars Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, both of whom were allegedly battling anorexia at one point
   Stars Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan, both of whom were allegedly battling anorexia at one point

Social factors, such as peer pressure and the need to look like women in magazines and on the catwalk, have been held as the rooting causes of eating disorders, especially anorexia and bulimia. Yet, a new study comes to reveal that such diseases may be traced back to a poor wiring in the brain, which would thus overturn the commonly held belief that the sufferer is only responding to outside factors.

Researchers led by Dr. Ian Frampton of London’s Great Ormond Street hospital studied the cases of approximately 200 anorexia sufferers both from the UK and the US. All of them were being treated separately for their condition at various clinics at the time of the study.

More importantly, the brains of all the subjects had a type of abnormality that might explain the disease, which makes it possible for further researches to come up with a drug to successfully treat anorexia.

“Our research shows that certain kids’ brains develop in such a way that makes them more vulnerable to commonly-known risk factors for eating disorders – such as the size zero debate, media representations of very skinny women and bad parents.” Dr. Frampton says, as quoted by the Daily Mail.

What makes this study so important is not only the fact that poor dieting or bad parenting can be eliminated as the causes of anorexia and other eating disorders, but also that it might pave the way for a future drug to cure it. According to Dr. Frampton, thousands of girls could be suffering from the same condition without even knowing about it yet – so, hopefully, further testing will enable doctors to screen them at the young age of eight and determine whether anorexia is in their future or not.

“These findings could help us to understand a disease we don’t know how to treat. Arguments that social factors, such as girls feeling under pressure to lose weight to look like high-profile women in the media, contain logical flaws because almost everyone is exposed to them, yet only a small percentage of young people get anorexia. Those things are important, but there must be other factors, involving genetics and science, that make some young people much more vulnerable than others.” Dr. Frampton further explains.