Addictive nature of anorexia

There is a similarity between the addictive nature of anorexia and the club-drug 'ecstasy'. Anorexia nervosa is a lack of appetite or an aversion to food that leads to starvation. It is an illness that usually occurs in teenage girls, but it can be seen in teenage boys and adults. It has been found that anorexia and the club-drug 'ecstasy' activate the same brain pathways and reduce the drive to eat by stimulating the same subset of receptors. This similarity underlines the addictive nature of anorexia and other eating disorders. To assess this semblance between anorexia and 'ecstasy', researchers at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montpellier studied the response in the brain receptors of food-fed mice. Similar to the stimulation of receptors for the neurotransmitter serotonin in human beings, stimulation of these receptors in mice lead to anorexic-like behaviour. These so-called 5-HT4 receptors are located in a brain structure associated with feelings of reward called the nucleus accumbens. The results showed that food-fed mice ate less and food-deprived mice showed a reduced drive to eat. Stimulating these receptors in mice also boosted production of the same enzymes stimulated in response to cocaine and amphetamine use. Blocking the receptors increased food intake in the animals and mice missing these receptors were less sensitive to the appetite-suppressant effects of 'ecstasy'. This points to the possibility that anorexia can be a reward-relating problem involving neuronal mechanisms.