Anorexia may be more metabolic than mental, scientist argues
May 27, 2011 at 2:00 PM ET  Anorexia may be a disorder more of
the metabolism than the mind, according to a new paper that
argues the disease is a sort of cousin of diabetes.   But this
theory of anorexia as a fundamentally biological disorder,
rather than a psychological one, is untested, psychiatrists
warn, and patients with the disease should not stray from proven
treatments.  The review of past research on the topic, published
in the June issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry, finds
that certain genetic and cellular processes get activated during
starvation in organisms ranging from yeast to fruit flies to
mice to humans. The idea, said study researcher Donard Dwyer, is
that in people with a broken starvation response, a few initial
rounds of dieting could trigger a metabolism gone haywire.  In
this theory, it's not stubbornness or a mental disorder that
keeps anorexics from eating, it's their own bodies. The theory
could explain why it can