Taste Responsiveness in Anorexia Nervosa

1993 ◽  
Vol 162 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yves Simon ◽  
France Bellisle ◽  
Marie-Odile Monneuse ◽  
Bertrand Samuel-Lajeunesse ◽  
Adam Drewnowski

Preferences for sugar/fat mixtures were examined in 12 anorectic females and in 14 normal-weight volunteer controls. The subjects, recruited at an eating-disorders clinic in Paris, were tested after an overnight fast and 2 hours after lunch. Anorectic patients disliked the taste of foods rich in fat more than did controls. Perceptions and preferences for sweet taste did not differ between anorectic females and controls. After lunch, taste preference ratings were equally reduced in both groups, suggesting that satiety aversion to sucrose is present even in anorexia nervosa.

1987 ◽  
Vol 32 (7) ◽  
pp. 624-631 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Garfinkel ◽  
David M. Garner ◽  
David S. Goldbloom

In the past decade much has been learned about the clinical features, diagnosis and understanding of people with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. In order to provide the next level of improvement in our care for these patients, our understanding of certain problems must be addressed by empirical research. Areas which require further study include the definition of high risk groups, the refinement of diagnoses, understanding factors which result in chronicity, determining the complications of chronicity and comparative evaluations of different treatments. These five areas are outlined in this article. Populations at risk for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa may be those who must be thin and achieve according to career choice, those with a particular family and personal psychiatric history; obesity and chronic medical illnesses may be further risks. Improved diagnostic understanding has occurred by the differentiation of bulimic from restricting subtypes of anorexia nervosa. Further work must determine the relationship between the bulimic subtype of anorexia nervosa and bulimia in normal weight women and to further clarify the relationship between eating disorders and affective disorders. A number of factors may result in a chronic illness. These have been described on a variety of levels. The consequences of starvation in altering an individual's thinking, feeling and behaviour do play a role. It is not clear what factors at a neurochemical level contribute to this. Elevated endogenous opiates decreased noradrenergic function and decreased serotonin may be important. Information about the chronic complications is required for clinicians to understand the broad range of difficulties that may develop over time so that clinicians may use this information in planning treatment strategies. Two examples, those of osteoporosis and the pregnant woman with an eating disorder, highlight this problem. Finally, treatment is briefly reviewed in terms of options available and the idea of developing a stepped-care approach to treatment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-256
Author(s):  
Ler Sheang Lim ◽  
Xian Hui Tang ◽  
Wai Yew Yang ◽  
Shu Hwa Ong ◽  
Nenad Naumovski ◽  
...  

The taste and food preferences in children can affect their food intake and body weight. Bitter and sweet taste sensitivities were identified as primary taste contributors to children’s preference for consuming various foods. This pilot study aimed to determine the taste sensitivity and preference for bitter and sweet tastes in a sample of Malaysian children. A case–control study was conducted among 15 pairs of Malay children aged 7 to 12 years. Seven solutions at different concentrations of 6-n-propylthiouracil and sucrose were prepared for testing bitterness and sweet sensitivity, respectively. The intensity of both bitter and sweet sensitivity was measured using a 100 mm Labelled Magnitude Scale (LMS), while the taste preference was rated using a 5-point Likert scale. The participants were better at identifying bitter than sweet taste (median score 6/7 vs. 4/7). No significant differences were detected for both tastes between normal-weight and overweight groups [bitter: 350 vs. 413, p = 0.273; sweet: 154 vs. 263, p = 0.068], as well as in Likert readings (bitter 9 vs. 8: p = 0.490; sweet 22 vs. 22: p = 0.677). In this sample of Malay children, the participants were more sensitive to bitterness than sweetness, yet presented similar taste sensitivity and preference irrespective of their weight status. Future studies using whole food samples are warranted to better characterize potential taste sensitivity and preference in children.


CNS Spectrums ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido K. W. Frank

Over the past decade, brain imaging has helped to better define eating disorder–related brain circuitry. Brain research on gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) volumes had been inconsistent, possibly due to the effects of acute starvation, exercise, medication, and comorbidity, but newer studies have controlled for such effects. Those studies suggest larger left medial orbitofrontal gyrus rectus volume in ill adult and adolescent anorexia nervosa after recovery from anorexia nervosa, and in adult bulimia nervosa. The orbitofrontal cortex is important in terminating food intake, and altered function could contribute to self-starvation. The right insula, which processes taste but also interoception, was enlarged in ill adult and adolescent anorexia nervosa, as well as adults recovered from the illness. The fixed perception of being fat in anorexia nervosa could be related to altered insula function. A few studies investigated WM integrity, with the most consistent finding of reduced fornix integrity in anorexia and bulimia nervosa—a limbic pathway that is important in emotion but also food intake regulation. Functional brain imaging using basic sweet taste stimuli in eating disorders during the ill state or after recovery implicated repeatedly reward pathways, including insula and striatum. Brain imaging that targeted dopamine-related brain activity using taste-reward conditioning tasks suggested that this circuitry is hypersensitive in anorexia nervosa, but hyporesponsive in bulimia nervosa and obesity. Those results are in line with basic research and suggest adaptive reward system changes in the human brain in response to extremes of food intake—changes that could interfere with normalization of eating behavior.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 720-720
Author(s):  
E. Fadda ◽  
S. Fronza ◽  
E. Galimberti ◽  
L. Bellodi

IntroductionGreenwald and co-workers developed The implicit Association Test (IAT) to measure implicit automatic concept-attribute associations. Evidences have suggested that Anorexia Nervosa (AN) and Bulimia Nervosa (BN) were characterized by “Ideal Thin” construct.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was the evaluation, at an implicit level, of Ideal Thin construct in a sample of Eating Disorders (ED) patients.MethodsAn “Ideal thin” Implicit Association Tests (Ideal thin IAT) has been modeled, to evaluate the implicit ideal thin in ED patients compared with an healthy control group. IAT test has been administered to a sample composed by 17 AN patients, 14 BN patients, 17 Binge Eating patients (BED) and 32 healthy controls (HC). The target categories, were “OVERWEIGHT / UNDERWEIGHT” and “POSITIVE / NEGATIVE”. Stimuli included pictures of overweight and normal weight models and positive/negative words. A positive IAT effect underlines an implicit tendency to associate the category “UNDERWEIGHT” with negative attributes, instead a negative IAT effect suggest an implicit tendency to associate the same category with positive attributes.ResultsResults showed no significant difference between HC and clinical groups in implicit “Ideal Thin construct”. All groups showed positive IAT effect. No correlations between implicit attitude and clinical variables were found.ConclusionResults show a common implicit tendency generalized in the sample to positively judge underweight. This implicit tendency was stronger in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (0,30), than patents with Bulimia Nervosa (0,41), than Healthy Control (0,42), followed by patients with BED (0,56).


Author(s):  
Susan McElroy ◽  
Anna I. Guerdjikova ◽  
Nicole Mori ◽  
Paul E. Keck

This chapter addresses the pharmacotherapy of the eating disorders (EDs). Many persons with EDs receive pharmacotherapy, but pharmacotherapy research for EDs has lagged behind that for other major mental disorders. This chapter first provides a brief rationale for using medications in the treatment of EDs. It then reviews the data supporting the effectiveness of specific medications or medication classes in treating patients with anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and other potentially important EDs, such as night eating syndrome (NES). It concludes by summarizing these data and suggesting future areas for research in the pharmacotherapy of EDs.


Author(s):  
Pamela Keel

The epidemiology of eating disorders holds important clues for understanding factors that may contribute to their etiology. In addition, epidemiological findings speak to the public health significance of these deleterious syndromes. Information on course and outcome are important for clinicians to understand the prognosis associated with different disorders of eating and for treatment planning. This chapter reviews information on the epidemiology and course of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and two forms of eating disorder not otherwise specified, binge eating disorder and purging disorder.


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