New study links abnormal brain function to severe forms of anorexia and dysmorphism

On the other hand, people with dysmorphia and BDD usually attach themselves to self-recognized body defects rather than weight. Image courtesy of Jannis Lucas / Unsplash

Body image problems often lead to various types of mental health disorders, and in serious cases can lead to chronic illness, worsening health and even death.

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are the most well known types of eating disorders that fall into the category of mental health problems. However, it can be found in many other things, such as BDD.

A common misconception that people are about eating disorders and mental health problems related to body images like these is that they are lifestyle choices and that people-especially women-are engaged in them voluntarily. about it.

New research published in journals Brain imaging and behavior Because these mental health disorders have neurological connections and their severity is determined by certain types of brain abnormalities, disorders such as anorexia nervosa and BDD are voluntary lifestyle choices. Reinforces the idea that not likely.

Study on brain function and body image disorder

The study included 64 women who were not on drug therapy, 20 of whom regained anorexia, 23 developed BDD, and 21 were normal or women without eating disorders. did. Participants were presented with images of male and female bodies, their brain activation and visual and parietal brain network connectivity were measured through functional MRI to investigate the relationship between clinical symptoms and human appearance assessments. Did.

It was found that abnormalities in brain activity and connection signals were seen in people with anorexia or BDD while viewing images of unhealthy individuals. Connection abnormalities were similar between these groups, but activity abnormalities were different. The more severe the eating disorder, the more pronounced the abnormal brain function. The results of these studies will help us better understand the clear and shared pathophysiology of these two eating disorders and will help us to create better treatments.

Identification of anorexia nervosa and BDD

The results of this study, and many others of this kind, may help people with eating disorders to overcome their illness, but an even bigger problem is the lack of awareness of these disorders. Apart from believing that eating disorders are the choices people make, many believe that there is no significant difference between different eating disorders. However, each eating disorder, like most mental health disorders, presents its own set of symptoms.

For example, people with anorexia nervosa have a distorted body image and are strongly afraid of weight gain. This causes them to eat less and lose weight dangerously. The following are their main symptoms by the British National Health Service (NHS).

• Missing, skipping food, or eating too little
• What you ate and how much you weighed
• Take medications and other substances to reduce hunger
• Exercise excessively to lose weight, to the extent of self-harm or collapse
• Overwhelming fear of being fat
• I think dramatic weight loss is good
• Believe you are fat when you are healthy or underweight

On the other hand, people with dysmorphia and BDD usually attach themselves to self-recognized body defects rather than weight. In this sense, BDD is not purely an eating disorder, but has an obsessive-compulsive disorder component. The NHS lists the following as symptoms of BDD:

• Many worries about specific areas of your body
• Spends a lot of time comparing your appearance to that of others
• Look too far in the mirror or avoid it altogether
• Spend too much effort to hide self-aware defects
• Make extreme changes to diet and lifestyle to correct self-awareness deficits
• Picking and changing the skin (extreme symptoms)

Because the symptoms of these disorders are very different, the treatment may be different. After all, all you need to know is that these disorders have profound effects on your health, and these are mental health issues that you should not ignore or stand by. It is very important to consult a psychiatrist or psychologist to treat such a disease faster than to delay it.

See the following articles for more information. Anorexia nervosa..

The Firstpost Health article is produced by myUpchar.com, India’s first and largest resource for validated healthcare information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to provide all health information.