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Structural brain abnormalities in patients with bulimia nervosa
J C Krieg1, C Lauer, K M Pirke
1Department of Psychiatry, Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich, F.R.G.
Psychiatry Research
|January 1, 1989
Summary
Brain imaging in eating disorders reveals that bulimia nervosa patients exhibit enlarged ventricles and sulcal widening, similar to anorexia nervosa, suggesting starvation
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychiatry
- Radiology
Background:
- Eating disorders like bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are associated with significant psychological and physiological disturbances.
- Previous research suggested that brain abnormalities in anorexia nervosa might be linked to emaciation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the presence and severity of brain structural changes in patients with bulimia nervosa compared to anorexia nervosa and healthy controls.
- To explore the potential causes of observed brain alterations in bulimia nervosa, considering factors beyond severe underweight.
Main Methods:
- Computed tomographic (CT) brain scans were conducted on three groups: 50 inpatients with bulimia nervosa, 50 inpatients with anorexia nervosa, and 50 age-matched healthy controls.
- Quantitative analysis of ventricular size and sulcal width was performed on the CT scans.
Main Results:
- Patients with bulimia nervosa showed enlarged ventricles and/or sulcal widening, though less pronounced than in anorexia nervosa patients.
- These CT abnormalities in normal-weight bulimic patients suggest they are not solely due to emaciation.
- Ventricular size in both bulimic and anorectic patients was inversely correlated with plasma triiodothyronine levels, a marker for starvation.
Conclusions:
- Morphological brain alterations in bulimia nervosa may result from endocrine and metabolic responses to starvation, irrespective of body weight.
- These findings challenge the notion that emaciation is the sole cause of brain changes in eating disorders.
- The correlation with triiodothyronine levels supports the hypothesis that starvation-related metabolic changes contribute to brain alterations in bulimia nervosa.