Studies made on patients suffering from anorexia have shown that the women have a significant increased chemical activity in the brain. The part of the brain in which these activities have been seen is responsible for controlling reinforcement and reward. This most certainly explains the excessive drive to lose weight and of course the in satisfaction gained from the loss of the weight.



Comparing healthy women with anorexic women patients has revealed this significant findings. Scientist, using the latest brain imaging technology, have actually found out that the dopamine receptors of the brain, in the basal ganglia area, have an increased activity.

Doctors are very confident that all this research will at some point have proven useful. They are certain that in the near future a drug to treat anorexia will be developed in order to better treat the patients suffering from this terrible disorder.

Anorexia affects some 1 in every one hundred women. Most recently, studies have showed an increase in the male patients also coming down with this illness. The cruel fact is that it's the deadliest of all psychiatric diseases.

It is known that women with anorexia actually have and obsessive personality and behavior. They most likely avoid harm and actually prefer routine. Doctors in the National Eating Disorder Association have said that most of the women actually resist the therapy and that they have a very distorted perception of them selves.

Finding the connection between the actual disorder and what is happening in the brain has proven to be rather difficult, but must be done no mater what so that scientist and doctors can best understand and treat eating disorders. Studies have shown that while there are few women that develop the disease in it's purest form, there many more people suffering from some form or another of anorexia.

Brake through in medicine are showing that not society or family behavior is responsible for the appearance of anorexia in young women, but the simple malfunction of a part of the brain. The ultimate goal of scientist is to find a treatment that will finally cure anorexia; still it is also very important to best understand it so that preventing it can be possible in the future.

A lot of work is done by professionals and qualified scientists so that an eventual cure is finally found. Tens of millions of dollars are spent to discover the genetic link to the disease.