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1. Anorexics process self-identity differ... http://www.dallasnews.com/news/c... 04/10/12 16:55
Anorexics process self-identity differently than
Southwestern study shows
By LESLIE MINORA
Staff Writer
lminora@dallasnews.com
Published: 30 September 2012 11:15 PM
A vague but complex mixture of guilt, self-punishment and perfectionism became manifest in Lauren’s aversion to food.
For the college senior, who considers herself in recovery, anorexia wasn’t a decision to shrink to a size perennially out of reach
It wasn’t a decision at all.
A recently published study by researchers from the Center for BrainHealth and UT Southwestern Medical Center found that wo
self-perception differently from women without an eating disorder.
The study is further proof of what many experiencing anorexia and many clinicians have believed for a long time.
“It adds to the growing data that there is an actual biological change with anorexia,” said Kathryn Zerbe, a training psychoanaly
who specializes in eating disorders and has written two books on the subject. She is not involved with the BrainHealth study.
“There is nothing that has been definitively shown to be helpful for the condition other than psychotherapy,” Zerbe said, adding
long-term therapy can biologically alter the brain.
Brain images from the study are biological evidence of anorexia’s mental roots, far deeper than what’s visible in a mirror. While
implications for treatment, they indicate that recovery is more long term and complex than achieving a healthy weight, which is
facilities.
“The brain is such a complex organ,” said Lauren, a 21-year-old neurobiology student who participated in the study and asked
“I don’t like talking about my behaviors; I don’t like talking about my history, and it’s been a slow process coming out,” she said
For her, the thoughts began as an 8-year-old. She had to be the straight-A student, the perfect daughter; everything had to be
to look perfect, like the models with beautiful garments hanging from bony shoulders.
“At first it was just, ‘Eat three meals a day.’ Then it became two meals a day. Then it was, ‘Only eat vegetables.’ Then it was, ‘E
before I knew it, it was, ‘How many days can I go without eating?’”
Just before high school, she dropped 20 pounds in one month, and her parents sent her to a treatment facility.
There, she would stuff small bottles of paint into her bra and underwear before weigh-ins. At one point, she made a small bag
invisible to doctors. She had gained 12 pounds on her 100-pound frame, but the scale reflected 20.
Throughout the years, she went to two other treatment facilities, recovering from a low point of 80 pounds.
“This is why I love this study,” Lauren said. It’s about thoughts and biology, not arbitrary numbers.
She hopes this research and subsequent studies will show the value of long-term psychotherapy over weight-based treatment
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2. Anorexics process self-identity differ... http://www.dallasnews.com/news/c... 04/10/12 16:55
Beth Finney, another study participant, shared feelings similar to Lauren’s as she struggled with the disease.
“Part of it was punishment,” she said. “I felt guilty, and I felt bad.” She was never unhappy with her body. The image-conscious
“It was kind of like my rebellion, not necessarily against my parents, but just me rebelling, but passively,” said Finney, who is no
Her condition caught up with her at the end of her freshman year at Texas Christian University, just before finals. She recalls a
inpatient treatment.
Her health was so poor, she was a liability.
Finney and Lauren both participated in the study in 2009, as they were recovering. Both intimately knew the complex thoughts
Not eating was a symptom of a deep-seated mind-set that eclipsed their personality, relationships and everyday habits.
For the study, Carrie McAdams, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at UT Southwestern, and Daniel Krawczyk, a cognitive neuro
at the University of Texas at Dallas, focused on 18 women who were recovering from anorexia and 18 control subjects, all betw
subjects is typical for brain imaging studies.
The study required Finney, Lauren and the others recovering from anorexia to have a current body mass index greater than 17
two consecutive menstrual cycles.
Subjects were prompted to respond to self-identity statements like “I believe I am considerate” on a four-tiered scale from “stro
Doctors tracked their brain activity through functional MRI imaging. The study, published last month in Social Cognitive and Aff
included social traits such as “friendly” and physical traits such as “my teeth are straight.”
Across the board, for both physical and social prompts, anorexic patients had less brain activity than control subjects in region
processed.
The two-year study showed “a comparison between thinking about yourself in general and thinking about how you look,” said M
both of those things in the eating disorder patients.”
Finney and Lauren hoped the study would help them and others grasp a deeper understanding of whatever was happening ins
“It takes away a lot of the guilt, that you’ve created this yourself,” Finney said. “It’s medical … anorexia is classified as a psycho
medically.”
Finney has been feeling better recently. She’s thin, but not alarmingly so. She laughs that she can now participate in potlucks a
For Lauren, who describes her weight as teetering at the low end of normal, the study provided less relief.
“Honestly, it was terrifying and it still scares me,” she said.
Normally fast-talking and bubbly, she slows down when she begins to talk about the study’s implications. As a student of brain
explain.
“Have you heard of synaptic plasticity?” she asked, about to discuss the ability of neurons within the brain to interact.
It’s a long road to “rewire” those circuits and relearn normal ways of considering self-identity, she said. “It’s like living with a bur
She knows it will be years before she can call herself fully recovered, but she knows she’s come a long way.
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