Get Help For An Anorexic Teen

Did you know that 95 percent of people with eating disorders are between 12 and 25 years old? Did you know that anorexia is the third-most common chronic illness among adolescents? Did you know that the mortality rate for teenage girls with anorexia is 12 times higher than those without anorexia?

With numbers like these, it’s important to seek help for a teenager who you may suspect is suffering with this particular eating disorder.

Larger Brains May Lead to Anorexia

A new study sheds light on why some teens may suffer from anorexia. According to the study, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, teens with anorexia have bigger brains than those who do not have this eating disorder.

This particular study found that girls with anorexia had a larger insula, a part of the brain that tells a person when to stop eating. Researchers hypothesized that the larger size of the brain may be one of the reasons why people with anorexia are able to starve themselves.

Study Overview

Researchers recruited 19 adolescent girls with anorexia and 22 without anorexia into the study and examined their brain volumes with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The girls with anorexia showed greater left orbitofrontal and right insular. In these girls, orbitofrontal gray matter volume related negatively with sweet tastes.

Sources: University of Colorado Denver Press Release, National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders