Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 24, 2026
Intermittent Binge-Intake Model in Mice
Published on: January 10, 2025
Reduction of anxiety after restricted feeding in the rat: implication for eating disorders
Koki Inoue1, Eric P Zorrilla, Antoine Tabarin
1Department of Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA.
Background:
Eating-disorder patients exhibit not only abnormal eating attitudes but also pathologic anxiety-like behaviors. The specific nature of the relationship between dieting and anxiety-like behavior is unknown.
Methods:
To investigate the adaptational changes that resulted from chronic restricted scheduled feeding (2-hour access per day for 2 weeks) and subsequent free refeeding, longitudinal changes in the microstructure of feeding behavior were studied in male rats. To study the relationship between restricted feeding and anxiety-like behavior, separate rats were tested in the elevated plus-maze under the following conditions: 1) free feeding; 2) acute food restriction (2-hour access for 1 day); 3) chronic food restriction (for 10 days); or 4) postrecovery (after 10 days of free feeding subsequent to chronic food restriction).
Results:
The effects of chronic food restriction on meal structure diminished within a few days after refeeding. Decreased anxiety-like behavior was seen during acute and chronic food restriction and did not reflect nonspecific behavioral activation. Anxiolytic-like effects persisted after 10 days of refeeding.
Conclusions:
Chronic food restriction produced reductions in anxiety-like behavior that persisted beyond the normalization of food intake patterns. The findings might have etiologic and pathophysiologic relevance for the restrained eating pattern in eating-disorder patients with comorbid anxious symptoms.
