A team of US psychologists and neuroscientists have found that adult brain volume, which can be reduced by anorexia nervosa, can be regained. The research, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, revealed that through specialist treatment patients with this eating disorder can reverse this symptom and regain grey matter volume.

The starvation that results from anorexia nervosa affects physiological systems throughout the body, including the brain, but until now it has been unclear if and when brain volume reduction can be reversed through specialist treatment.

The investigating team, based at the Columbia University Center for Eating Disorders in the USA, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to take pictures of the brains of 32 adult female inpatients with anorexia nervosa and 21 healthy women without any psychiatric illnesses.

The scans indicated that when the women with anorexia nervosa were in a state of starvation they had less grey matter brain volume compared to the healthy women. Those who had the illness the longest had the greatest reductions in brain volume when underweight.

The team’s results reveal that underweight adult patients with anorexia nervosa have reduced brain volumes that increase with short-term weight restoration, however, important questions still remain surrounding the link between brain volume reduction and anorexia.

Reference
Roberto C, Mayer L, Brickman A, et al. International Journal of Eating Disorders May 2010; DOI: 10.1002/eat.20840