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Updated: Sep 8, 2026

Using the Activity-based Anorexia Rodent Model to Study the Neurobiological Basis of Anorexia Nervosa
Published on: October 22, 2015
The parents' relationship and the child's illness in anorexia nervosa
C Gordon1, E Beresin, D B Herzog
1Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Abstract:
The authors examine the impact on the preanorexic child of the parents' relationship with one another, particularly the models they present of mature male/female relationships. The authors suggest that patterns of maternal perfectionism and self-sacrifice combined with paternal entitlement makes sexual maturity particularly threatening for female children in these families, and may partially explain the greater incidence of anorexia nervosa in women, and its explosive incidence in adolescence.
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