The Importance of Physiologic, Metabolic, and Endocrine Studies for the Understanding of Anorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Anorexia nervosa is a fascinating and most complicated disease insofar as mental, as well as somatic, functions are considerably changed and impaired by it. In this sense it is a truly psychosomatic disease. It also possesses all the characteristics of an addiction as far as course and outcome, coping strategies, subjective feelings, and psychopathology are concerned (Ploog 1981). A deviant psychic development, usually starting around puberty, becomes evident in a growing rejection of food. This in turn leads to a reduction in weight and a state of malnutrition marked by a number of serious somatic symptoms. Several of these symptoms, such as the drop in temperature, the discontinuance of reproductive functions, and changes in the intermediate metabolism, are indicative of the existence of that physical state in which the remaining energy potential is used as sparingly as possible in order to prolong survival. These observations are based on a large number of case studies in which physiologic, metabolic, and endocrine malfunctions in anorexia nervosa patients were investigated.