Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Possible Genetic Link Between Anorexia and Autism

Katy Campbell of the London Times interviews Professor Janet Treasure, the author of a new study examining the similarities in thought patterns between people with eating disorders and people (especially girls) with autism.
"What we now realise is that we need to be looking at underlying neural networks in the brain – how patterns of information are processed, how this affects both behaviour and the way an individual reacts to her environment, and why this goes wrong. We need to consider those aspects of how the brain functions that increase the risk of someone falling prey to an eating disorder. "
[snip]
"We have found, for example, that people with eating disorders find it difficult to change self-set rules and learnt behaviour once fixed in the brain. They also see the world in close-up detail, as if they are looking at life through a zoom lens – but this can be at the cost of having an ability to see and think about self-identity and connections with others without getting lost in the details.
We also discovered that this distorted pattern of processing information has a strong similarity to autistic spectrums. It has even been described as the female form of Asperger’s. Traits that may appear present in childhood, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or overperfectionism, can often indicate a vulnerability to developing an eating disorder later in adolescence. "

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Has anyone looked into the possibility of mercury poisoning(thermasol in childhood vaccines)as cause for ocd,autism and anorexia?Mercury is a neurotoxin..........