The article was published in the journal ...

The article was published in the journal "Pharmaceutical Journal"

Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa - due to neuroendocrine changes in eating disorders characterized by failure of food intake and / or its rejection. For the first time this condition was described over 200 years ago. Anorexia nervosa is defined by impaired functioning neuroendocrine regulatory systems, occurring on the background or being a consequence of the psychodynamic disorders. Last updated very important because some neuroendocrine impairment may be as part of the behaviors (rejection of food), while others appear a second time under the influence of factors such as weight loss and depression. Spread over the last two decades in Western countries has increased significantly the number of individuals with anorexia nervosa. This state is common among school-age girls in Sweden with a frequency of 1:150, in England, its frequency among girls in private schools was 1:200, and 1:550 in the public schools, among British schoolgirls aged 16 and over, the frequency of the disease has reached 1:90. Structures involved in the regulation of appetite basic brain structure involved in appetite regulation is the hypothalamus, the ventromedial part responsible for the saturation and lateral, is apparently involved in the initiation of food intake, ie, the center plays the role of hunger. There are many experimental data that by stimulating these two areas of the hypothalamus can cause opposite changes in eating behavior. In addition to the hypothalamic structures involved in feeding behavior of endogenous opioid peptides. Stress-induced appetite (well-known syndrome in humans and animals), many experts attributed to the activation of the endogenous opioid system. In animal experiments have shown that after termination of repetitive stress-inducing food consumption, developing a withdrawal syndrome, similar to that observed in drug addicts. These data support the idea that obesity may be a result of addiction to its own endogenous opioids. Pathophysiology of Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a sharp decrease in the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone by decreasing the frequency and amplitude of the pulse separation lyuteoniziruyuschego hormone, as well as the weakening of activity of gonadotrophic releasing hormone, which leads to disruption of reproductive function. Vibrations of a-adrenergic activity in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus may cause occasional fluctuations in eating behavior. Reduced secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone is associated with increased opioid activity in the brain (excessive consumption of food) and / or excessive production of corticotropin relilizing-stimulating hormone (anorexia). Along with a decrease in the secretion of gonadotropin-releasing hormone is disturbed metabolism of sex hormones, which manifests itself gipoestrogenemiey. Scientists believe, are available for anorexia nervosa shifts in the metabolism of estrogen, probably non-specific and associated with changes in body weight or the nature of power.