Testosterone administration attenuates regional brain hypometabolism in women with anorexia nervosa.

Abnormalities in brain metabolism have not been consistently well localized in anorexia nervosa (AN), and effects of specific therapies on these functional abnormalities have not been studied. Androgen replacement therapy improves mood, well-being and cognitive function in men with androgen deficiency. We therefore hypothesized that women with AN and relative androgen deficiency would exhibit regional brain hypometabolism compared with healthy controls, and that low-dose physiologic androgen replacement would attenuate the hypometabolism in some of these brain loci.

Effects of estrogen and recombinant human insulin-like growth factor-I on ghrelin secretion in severe undernutrition.

Ghrelin is a nutritionally regulated gut peptide that increases with fasting and chronic undernutrition and decreases with food intake. Sex steroid levels change in chronic undernutrition and might signal changes in ghrelin. At the same time, chronic undernutrition is characterized by low IGF-I that might also influence ghrelin, either directly or through changes in the GH axis.

Effects of risedronate on bone density in anorexia nervosa.

Anorexia nervosa (AN), a psychiatric disease characterized by chronic starvation, is complicated by severe bone loss (1), for which there is no effective, available therapy. Although bone resorption is markedly increased in these patients, estrogen is an ineffective anti-resorptive therapy in the setting of undernutrition. We hypothesized bisphosphonate administration would result in a decrease in bone resorption and an increase in bone density in women with AN and bone loss, despite undernutrition.