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Oxytocin response to food intake in avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder
Anna Aulinas1,2,3, Maged Muhammed4, Kendra R Becker5,6
1Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, IIB-Sant Pau, 08041 Barcelona, Spain.
Objective:
To investigate the response of anorexigenic oxytocin to food intake among adolescents and young adults with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), a restrictive eating disorder characterized by lack of interest in food or eating, sensory sensitivity to food, and/or fear of aversive consequences of eating, compared with healthy controls (HC).
Design:
Cross-sectional.
Methods:
A total of 109 participants (54 with ARFID spectrum and 55 HC) were instructed to eat a ∼400-kcal standardized mixed meal. We sampled serum oxytocin at fasting and at 30-, 60-, and 120-min postmeal. We tested the hypothesis that ARFID would show higher mean oxytocin levels across time points compared with HC using a mixed model ANOVA. We then used multivariate regression analysis to identify the impact of clinical characteristics (sex, age, and body mass index [BMI] percentile) on oxytocin levels in individuals with ARFID.
Results:
Participants with ARFID exhibited greater mean oxytocin levels at all time points compared with HC, and these differences remained significant even after controlling for sex and BMI percentile (P = .004). Clinical variables (sex, age, and BMI percentile) did not show any impact on fasting and postprandial oxytocin levels among individuals with ARFID.
Conclusions:
Consistently high oxytocin levels might be involved in low appetite and sensory aversions to food, contributing to food avoidance in individuals with ARFID.
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