NEUROBIOLOGY AND EATING DISORDERS: FROM THE BRAIN TO THE PLATE
In North America, eating disorders, which include, for example, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia and Binge Eating Disorders, will affect about one to five percent of people at some point in their lives. Eating disorders have great physical and psychological health consequences, and their remission rates are worrisome. The etiology of eating disorders is far from being elucidated, which hinders the development of effective interventions. By studying neurobiological mechanisms of eating disorders, using for example neuroimaging and epigenetic methods, it will be possible to obtain a clearer idea of their developmental origins. In the future, this new knowledge will be helpful to develop adapted prevention strategies, new diagnostic tools and targeted treatment strategies. For example, establishing the association between DNA methylation (an epigenetic modification) and brain changes observed in eating disorders could lead to important clinical advances. Thus, the objective of this narrative review, conducted from the Pubmed database between March and October 2020, is to summarize the state of knowledge on recent neurobiological advances in eating disorders, mainly in terms of epigenetics and neuroimaging.