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Objective: People who are ill with anorexia nervosa (AN) show altered availability of key plasma nutrients. However, little is known about the patterning of alterations that occurs across diverse nutrients during active phases of illness or about the persistence of any such alterations following remission of illness. Method: We compared plasma levels of one‐carbon metabolism nutrients across women with active AN (AN‐Active: n = 53), in remission from AN (AN‐Remitted: n = 40), or who had no eating‐disorder history (NED: n = 36). We also tested associations between body mass index (BMI) changes and changes in pre‐ to posttreatment nutrient levels, and explored the association between nutrient levels, on the one hand, and BMI and eating symptoms, on the other. Choline, betaine, and methionine were analyzed using mass spectrometry. Folate and B12 were analyzed using the AccuBind® ELISA kit. Eating‐disorder symptoms were assessed by interview and self‐report. Results: Compared to NED individuals, AN‐Active individuals exhibited significantly elevated B12 and (less‐reliably) betaine. In AN‐Active individuals, lower BMI was associated with higher B12. Discussion The observed alterations run contrary to the intuition that plasma nutrient levels should be directly responsive to nutritional status and suggest, instead, the existence of compensatory adaptations to malnutrition in individuals with active AN. Further study is required to clarify mechanisms that underlie such effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

DNA methylation allows for the environmental regulation of gene expression and is believed to link environmental stressors to psychiatric disorder phenotypes, such as anorexia nervosa (AN). The oxytocin receptor (OXTR) gene is epigenetically regulated, and studies have shown associations between OXTR and social behaviours in various samples, including women with AN. The present study examined differential levels of methylation at various CG sites of the OXTR gene in 69 women with active AN (AN‐Active), 21 in whom AN was in remission (AN‐Rem) and 35 with no eating disorder (NED). Within each group, we explored the correlation between methylation and measures of social behaviour such as insecure attachment and social avoidance. Hypermethylation of a number of CG sites was seen in AN‐Active participants as compared with AN‐Rem and NED participants. In the AN‐Rem sample, methylation at CG27501759 was significantly positively correlated with insecure attachment (r =.614, p =.003, permutation Q = 0.008) and social avoidance (r =.588, p =.005, permutation Q = 0.0184). Our results highlight differential methylation of the OXTR gene among women with AN, those in remission from AN, and those who never had AN and provide some evidence of associations between OXTR methylation and social behaviour in women remitted from AN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was conducted to establish the relation linking dietary restraint to urges to binge and actual binge eating through preprogrammed computers monitoring eating episodes, dietary restraints and binge cravings in a group of women over a period of time. Results revealed dietary restraint to be a contributing factor to binge eating, though not necessarily leading to binge episodes.

As in Australia, Canadian care-delivery tradition separates mental-health services designated for children and adolescents (under age 18) from those offered to adults (aged 18 and over). Likewise, some staff experience discomfort with the need to "reach upward" or "reach downward" (to use Allison et al.'s terms) to broaden their expertise in response to needs of patients who are either older or younger than those they used to treat. Dear Sir, Allison and et al.[1] advocate convincingly for the movement to all-age, "lifespan" care for people with eating disorders (EDs). [Extracted from the article]

Research suggests an association between psychopathologic traits and the likelihood of abuse, especially when women were abused as children and adults. Bulimic women reported significantly higher abuse rates than nonbulimic women, and more severe abuse often produced severe cases of bulimia.

Objective: To validate the Autonomous and Controlled Motivation for Treatment Questionnaire (ACMTQ) for use in women with an eating disorder (ED). Method: Data were available for 463 individuals. We assessed factor structure, internal reliability, test–retest reliability, convergent/divergent validity, and incremental predictive validity. Results: Our data showed acceptable fit to our hypothesized model (comparative fit index = 0.92, root mean square error of approximation = 0.09, standardized root mean square residual = 0.09). We found test–retest reliability of 0.73 for both the autonomous (α = 0.85) and controlled (α = 0.80) subscales. Autonomous scores were more strongly associated with motivation measures (β = 0.37; 0.46) than with ED severity measures (β = −0.10; −0.18). Associations between autonomous motivation and symptom improvement over time supported predictive validity. Controlled motivation was associated with lower motivation (β = 0.02; −0.31) and with higher ED severity (β = 0.12; 0.47). Conclusion: Our results suggest that the ACMTQ is valid for use in women with EDs and lend support to the validity of findings from previous ED studies that have used the ACMTQ. Highlights: Data showed acceptable fit to expected "autonomous motivation" and "controlled motivation" factors.Autonomous and Controlled Motivation for Treatment Questionnaire scores correlated with scores on other measures of motivation.Autonomous motivation predicted eating disorder symptom improvement over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-one eating-disordered (ED) women and 11 normal women completed tests of sex-role identity, dysfunctional cognitions, and body image. Anorexics, not bulimics, exhibited body-image distortion. All EDs (distorters and nondistorters) showed 'hyperfeminine' identifications. Maladaptive cognitions were present in all EDs, but more marked in 'overestimators.' Body weight predicted BID better than other measures of eating pathology, which suggests important effects of weight per se in producing BID.

Substance abuse is common in individuals with bulimia-spectrum (binge-purge) eating disturbances, a co-occurrence that has been attributed to shared neurobiological substrates--notably alterations in dopaminergic activity. We examined the implications of variations of selected, dopamine-relevant polymorphisms (DRD2 Taq1A, DRD4 7R, and COMT) for risk of substance abuse in women with binge-purge eating syndromes. We genotyped 183 women (66.1% showing full-threshold BN and 33.9% showing sub-syndromic variants), and assessed lifetime presence of alcohol, cannabis, cocaine, and stimulant abuse or dependence using structured interviews. Tests for main and interaction effects of various allele combinations revealed that individuals who carried high function COMT and low-function DRD4 7R alleles (a combination expected to be associated with higher risk) did indeed show more lifetime substance abuse and, specifically, more cannabis abuse. Our findings suggest that a gene combination that, in theory, codes for low levels of dopaminergic neurotransmission coincides with sensitivity to substance abuse in a sample displaying binge-purge eating-disorder variants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]