Researchers need to find out why some people with anorexia do not get well. Among other things, they will examine changes in the brain.
Elisabet Wentz is a professor and psychiatrist at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
– When it comes to the chronic cases of anorexia nervosa that exist in our unit, we will take a grip and examine them from many different aspects to form a better knowledge base about what distinguishes that group.
In previous studies, It has been seen that most people recover from their anorexia, but also that there is a small group where the disease has become chronic.
– The forecast there is not so good and we do not have many tools to use then, we do not really know what to do.
That is, among other things, for to get more tools that Elisabet Wentz together with other researchers will now examine patients who have been ill for a very long time in anorexia. The study is currently undergoing an ethics test, but what the researchers want to do is, among other things, to see through spinal fluid tests whether people with chronic anorexia have changes in the brain that can explain why they do not get well.
Previous research has shown that a certain type of nerve cell seems to break down faster in those with anorexia and this is one thing the research group now wants to take a closer look at. But researchers will also look at links to other diseases.
– Is it a comorbidity with, for example, autism and ADHD that we have missed and that we must be aware of in order to provide a better treatment? asks Elisabet Wentz.
Source: ICELAND NEWS