Gut-Brain Interaction Disorders and Anorexia Nervosa: Psychopathological Asset, Disgust, and Gastrointestinal Symptoms.

Background: Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are very common in subjects with eating disorders (EDs). This study aimed to (a) investigate the prevalence of gut-brain interaction disorders (DGBIs) in anorexia nervosa (AN) patients, according to ROME IV criteria; and (b) explore AN psychopathological assets and disgust that might impact GI symptoms.

Methods: Thirty-eight female patients consecutively diagnosed with untreated AN (age 19.

Obesity and Its Multiple Clinical Implications between Inflammatory States and Gut Microbiotic Alterations.

Obesity is a chronic multifactorial disease that has become a serious health problem and is currently widespread over the world. It is, in fact, strongly associated with many other conditions, including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, the onset of different types of malignant tumors and alterations in reproductive function. According to the literature, obesity is characterized by a state of low-grade chronic inflammation, with a substantial increase in immune cells, specifically macrophage infiltrates in the adipose tissue which, in turn, secrete a succession of pro-inflammatory mediators.

Neurobiological Correlates Shared Between Obesity, BED and Food Addiction.

The ubiquity of the obesity condition in the United States, Europe and other regions with developed economies will associate to a significant adverse impact on public health. Numerous data indicate that social, behavioral, neuroendocrine, and metabolic factors may encourage compulsive eating behaviors thus increasing the risk of obesity. Several pathological conditions overlap with excess weight.

Menstrual Disorders Related to Eating Disorders.

Eating Disorders (ED) are associated with multiple physical complications that strongly affect the physical health of these young and fragile patients and can also cause significant mortality, the highest among psychiatric pathologies. Among the various organic complications, albeit still little known, the gynecological implications, up to infertility, are very widespread. Both among adolescent and adult patients, gynecological symptoms can be very widespread and range from menstrual irregularities to amenorrhea, from vaginitis to ovarian polycystosis, up to complications during the gestational phase and in postpartum, in addition to the possible consequences on the unborn child.

Recent Advances in Treatment of Childhood Obesity.

Childhood obesity has assumed epidemic proportions and is currently one of the most widespread public health problems. Many are the factors involved in the pathogenesis of excess weight with interactions between genetic, environmental and biological factors and therefore, also the therapeutic approach must be multidisciplinary and multidimensional. In this review of the literature, we report the contiguity of childhood obesity with eating disorders and the importance of involving the family context in order to induce stable lifestyle changes, both in relation to dietary and nutritional habits, but also in increasing physical activity.

Depression and Obesity: Analysis of Common Biomarkers.

Depression and obesity are very common pathologies. Both cause significant problems of both morbidity and mortality and have decisive impacts not only on the health and well-being of patients, but also on socioeconomic and health expenditure aspects. Many epidemiological studies, clinical studies and meta-analyses support the association between mood disorders and obesity in relationships to different conditions such as the severity of depression, the severity of obesity, gender, socioeconomic status, genetic susceptibility, environmental influences and adverse experiences of childhood.

Obesity: The New Global Epidemic Pharmacological Treatment, Opportunities and Limits for Personalized Therapy.

Background: The increase in global obesity rates over the past three decades has been remarkable, a true epidemic, both in developed and in developing countries. The projections, based on current trends, suggest an increase in the prevalence of obesity at 60% in adult men, 40% in adult women and 25% in children in 2050. Given the limitations of lifestyle and surgery interventions bariatric, drug therapy approaches for the treatment of obesity, therefore become important options.

Eating Disorders in Athletes: From Risk Management to Therapy.

Background: Balanced sporting activity should be considered a resource in the treatment of eating disorders (ED), in particular of the BED and in obesity and, if conducted and guided by expert preparers and rehabilitators, in some forms of anorexia and in bulimia.

Objective: To assess the role of excessive physical activity, predominantly interfering with daily activities by ultimately resulting in greater energy consumption leading to weight loss, and study the diagnostic criteria of bulimia and anorexia nervosa.

Methods: A number of literature studies also report the presence of ED among athletes.

Gender Dysphoria, Eating Disorders and Body Image: An Overview.

Background: Gender dysphoria is a clinical condition in which a state of inner suffering, stress and anxiety is detected when biological sex and a person's gender identity do not coincide. People who identify themselves as transgender people are more vulnerable and may have higher rates of dissatisfaction with their bodies which are often associated with a disorderly diet in an attempt to change the bodily characteristics of the genus of birth and, conversely, to accentuate the characteristics of the desired sexual identity.

Aim: The purpose of this work is to examine the association between dissatisfaction with one's own body and eating and weight disorders in people with gender dysphoria.

Medical Complications in Anorexia and Bulimia Nervosa.

Background And Objective: Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and their variants are characterized by persistent alteration of eating behaviour, such as restricted intake or bingeing and purging, as well as excessive concerns about body shape and body weight. Purging behaviour may include self induced vomiting and/or abuse of laxatives, diuretics and physical hyperactivity. Unlike other psychiatric disorders, patients suffering from AN and BN have a high prevalence of many different medical complications, through the sequelae of undernutrition and purging, often with a serious impairment of health status and quality of life.

Changes in the Peripheral Endocannabinoid System as a Risk Factor for the Development of Eating Disorders.

Background And Objective: Eating Disorder (ED) is characterized by persistently and severely disturbed eating behaviours. They arise from a combination of long-standing behavioural, emotional, psychological, interpersonal, and social factors and result in insufficient nutrient ingestion and/or adsorption. The three main EDs are: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder.

Neuroendocrine and Metabolic Disorders in Bulimia Nervosa.

Background And Objective: Bulimia nervosa, is an eating disorder characterized by excessive influence of weight and body shape on the levels of self-esteem, with pervasive feelings of failure and inadequacy. The eating is characterized by the presence of episodes of uncontrolled eating (Binge), during which the person ingests mass wide variety of foods and the feeling of not being able to stop eating. This review focuses on the metabolic and hormonal alterations in the in bulimia nervosa.

[Seeking compulsory treatment as life-saving in the presence of eating disorders: a complex choice].

Eating disorders (and especially anorexia nervosa) are associated with severe disability, poor quality of life and high mortality rate. Anorexia nervosa ranks among the main causes of death among young women. Despite physical and psycho-social impairment, patients suffering from anorexia nervosa do not recognize low body weight and extreme calorie restriction as a clinical problem and are ambivalent towards treatment.

Hyperprolactinemia Induced by Antipsychotics: From Diagnosis to Treatment Approach.

Schizophrenia is one of the most severe psychiatric diseases with a significant impact on the psychosocial functioning of the patients. People with schizophrenia are at risk to die prematurely because of their illness with their poor lifestyle contributing to the excess morbidity and higher mortality rate. In particular, lifestyle (e.

Altered processing of rewarding and aversive basic taste stimuli in symptomatic women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: An fMRI study.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have displayed a dysregulation in the way in which the brain processes pleasant taste stimuli in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). However, exactly how the brain processes disgusting basic taste stimuli has never been investigated, even though disgust plays a role in food intake modulation and AN and BN patients exhibit high disgust sensitivity. Therefore, we investigated the activation of brain areas following the administration of pleasant and aversive basic taste stimuli in symptomatic AN and BN patients compared to healthy subjects.

Flattened cortisol awakening response in chronic patients with schizophrenia onset after cannabis exposure.

Cannabis may play a causal role in the onset of some schizophrenia cases; however, the biological vulnerability that predisposes some individuals to develop schizophrenia after exposure to cannabis is not known. According to the diathesis-stress pathogenetic model, it is likely that the endogenous stress response system, including the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, could be involved. Therefore, we investigated the saliva cortisol awakening response (CAR) of 16 patients with schizophrenia onset after the exposure to cannabis (Can+) as compared to 12 patients with schizophrenia onset without cannabis exposure (Can-) and to 15 healthy controls.

Antipsychotic drugs opposite to metabolic risk: neurotransmitters, neurohormonal and pharmacogenetic mechanisms underlying with weight gain and metabolic syndrome.

Important sources of metabolic diseases such as obesity and metabolic syndrome are significantly more prevalent in patients treated with antipsychotic drugs than the general population and they not only reduce the quality of life but also significantly reduce the life expectancy, being important risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying these events are not entirely clear they are complex and multi-determined or not tied to a single defining event. In this review we examine the literature on the interactions of antipsychotic drugs with neurotransmitters in the brain, with pharmacogenetics hormones and peripheral mechanisms that may induce, albeit in different ways between different molecules, not only weight gain but also 'onset of major diseases such as diabetes, dyslipidemia and hypertension that are the basis of the metabolic syndrome.

Agomelatine efficacy in the night eating syndrome.

Night eating syndrome (NES) is a nosographic entity included among the forms not otherwise specified (EDNOS) in eating disorders (ED) of the DSM IV. It is characterized by a reduced food intake during the day, evening hyperphagia, and nocturnal awakenings associated with conscious episodes of compulsive ingestion of food. Frequently, NES patients show significant psychopathology comorbidity with affective disorders.

Night eating syndrome: an overview.

Objectives: The purpose of this review is to outline the nosographic characteristics of NES and the most reliable ethiopathogenetic theories in relation to the most recent evidence in the literature.

Key Findings: The night eating syndrome (NES) is a disorder occurring at the stated time, that does not meet the criteria for any specific eating disorder. NES is characterized by a reduced feeding during the day, evening hyperphagia accompanied by frequent nocturnal awakenings associated with conscious episodes of compulsive ingestion of food and abnormal circadian rhythms of food and other neuroendocrine factors.

Recent clinical aspects of hyperprolactinemia induced by antipsychotics.

This review will address the current understanding of the relationship between hyperprolactinemia and antipsychotic drugs. Hyperprolactinemia is a frequent but often neglected side effect of typical, but also of many atypical antipsychotics. Release of PRL from lactotrope cells is influenced by several factors, such as stress, physical and sexual activity and food assumption.

Obsessive-compulsive symptoms in schizophrenia: their relationship with clinical features and pharmacological treatment.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate (1) the frequency of obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) in patients with schizophrenia, (2) the impact of OCS on clinical features of schizophrenia, and (3) the association between type of antipsychotic treatment and presence of OCS.

Methods: OCS were evaluated using the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) in 70 patients with schizophrenia. The patients were then divided into two subgroups: those with at least a moderate level of OCS and those with mild or absent OCS.

Endocannabinoid Pro129Thr FAAH functional polymorphism but not 1359G/A CNR1 polymorphism is associated with antipsychotic-induced weight gain.

Several candidate genes have been associated with antipsychotic-induced body weight (BW) gain. Because the endocannabinoid system is deeply involved in BW regulation, endocannabinoid genes may have a role in the antipsychotic-induced weight gain. Therefore, we investigated the 1359 G/A (rs1049353) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) of the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CNR1) gene, which codes the endocannabinoid CB1 receptor, and the complementary DNA (cDNA) 385C/A (rs324420) SNP of the FAAH gene, which codes the endocannabinoid degrading enzyme, for their role in BW changes induced by antipsychotic drugs.

Recent clinical aspects of eating disorders.

This review focuses on Eating Disorders (ED), the role played by neurotransmitters and peptides in ED phenomena as well as the drugs used in the treatment of these diseases. For ED, we mean a syndrome characterized by persistent alteration of eating behavior and the conditions that cause an insufficient ingestion and/or adsorption of foods. There are three different ED diseases: Anorexia Nervosa (AN), Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorders (BED).

Pharmacological profile of SSRIs and SNRIs in the treatment of eating disorders.

Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED) are some of the most common eating disorders (ED) in industrialized societies, characterized by uncontrolled binge eating and self-induced purging or other compensatory behaviours aiming to prevent body weight gain. It has been suggested that reduced serotonergic and noradrenergig tone triggers some of the cognitive and mood disturbances associated with ED. In fact in the active phase of ED the concentration of serotonin and noradrenaline in cerebral fluid is reduced.