Cognitive Therapy May Normalize
Brain Abnormalities in Bulimia
By Karla Gale
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -- Women with bulimia nervosa
have altered opioid receptor binding in their brains compared with
healthy women, the results of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging
study demonstrate. However, treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy
appears to normalize the brain chemistry, according to study findings
presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine's 52nd Annual Meeting in
Toronto in 2005.
Dr. James Frost, from Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine in Baltimore, and his team performed PET scanning on
brains of 13 women with bulimia and 8 female controls, repeating the
scanning in the bulimic patients after they underwent 12 sessions of
cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
Results were presented by Dr.
Peter Herscovitch, a vice chair of the Society's Scientific Program
Committee and chief of the PET imaging section at the National
Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.
Prior to cognitive
behavioral therapy, opiate receptor binding was lower in patients than
controls in the prefrontal cortex, the cingulate cortex and insular
cortex, Dr. Herscovitch told Reuters Health.
"The areas of the
brain that were involved are also involved in positive emotions in the
rewards system of the brain," he noted. "There was a correlation between
the degree of receptor abnormality and the severity of symptoms of
binging and vomiting, their urges to do so, and their bodily
preoccupation."
After treatment, increases were observed in the prefrontal and cingulate cortex and in the temporal cortex.
"If
you want to treat a disease, the first step should be understanding of
the underlying physiology and biochemistry that's abnormal in the
disease. Then the next step is to use that information to decide on
therapy," Dr. Herscovitch said. PET scanning offers the opportunity to
do both.
Source: This Reuters article was posted on Medscape Medical News Jun 21, 2005.
See: www.medscape.com
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