HHS HealthBeat (June 21, 2011)

Anorexia’s brain chemistry

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Eating makes most people feel good. But eating makes people with anorexia feel anxious. At the University of California, San Diego, Walter Kaye has been looking for reasons in brain chemistry.

Kaye thinks part of the explanation may be in the brain chemical dopamine, which normally is released when people eat. He gave a drug that stimulates dopamine production to women with or without a history of eating disorders, and it made the women with eating disorders feel anxious:

``We’ve recognized that in people with anorexia, food makes them anxious. This is the first bit of biologic evidence helping us to understand why that may occur.’’ (8 seconds)

The study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: June 21, 2011