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Brain hypometabolism of glucose in bulimia nervosa
V Delvenne1, S Goldman, Y Simon
1Department of Psychiatry, Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
Objective:
A cerebral function lateralization has been described in bulimic patients in positron emission tomography (PET) studies realized during a specific cognitive task. The purpose of this study was to evaluate, at rest, brain glucose metabolism in patients with bulimia nervosa.
Method:
PET with (18-F)-fluorodeoxyglucose was used to evaluate cerebral glucose metabolism in 11 normal-weight bulimic girls compared to 11 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. Patients were diagnosed following DSM-IV and were off psychoactive medication.
Results:
In comparison with control subjects, bulimic patients showed global and regional absolute hypometabolism of glucose. In relative values, only parietal cortex metabolism was significantly lower in bulimic patients. No correlation was found within groups for absolute or relative cerebral glucose metabolic rates (rCMRglu) and body mass index (BMI), anxiety scores, or Hamilton scores of depression.
Discussion:
Since previous studies have demonstrated similar disturbances in anorectic patients, we hypothesized that these observations could be a consequence of neurobiological perturbations following nutritional deficiencies or a particular cerebral dysfunction in eating disorders.