A new study from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) has shown that the popular notion that eating disorders are the result of social pressure and a lack of willpower is wrong. Another proof made by the researchers is that the disease is different between boys and girls.
The comparison between genders is unprecedented for research on binge eating disorder. According to Stuart Murray, associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the university, in recent decades, men have been excluded from research on these disorders, which impacts the results of treatments already developed.
“As a result of this exclusion, we developed treatments only from the study of women, which we then applied to boys and men and hope that they work with the same effectiveness”, he explains.
Also according to him, this exclusion was due to the misperception that eating disorders were uncommon among men.
Based on previous work, the study showed that binge eating disorder is directly related to the brain, which has significant differences in its structure depending on gender.
Looking at 74 children aged between 9 and 10 years, it was possible to conclude that girls with binge eating disorder had high gray matter density in various parts of the brain known to be connected to impulse control and binge eating, which are symptoms of the disorder. .
The boys, on the other hand, did not show a high density of gray matter in these areas. With this, Murray reinforces the importance of gender differentiation for research and treatment development.
The professor also states that new remediation procedures are on the horizon and contemplate the direct relationship between the disorder and the brain.
As disclosed by the USC, the next step of the research should be to study if in addition to having different structures, the brains of men and women with binge eating disorder have different functionings.
* Under supervision of Bárbara Brambila
Source: CNN Brasil
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