The treatment of bulimia with the help of antidepressant drug therapy Essay

Engel also discovered that after consuming a regular meal, control subjects described feeling satiated more than bulimics did, demonstrating that people with bulimia might suffer from faulty satiation responses. A desire to feel full may lead the bulimic to stuff themselves with foods high sugars and carbohydrates in an attempt to flood their brain with tryptophan, resulting in binge eating behavior.

The successful treatment of a number of bulimic patients with Prozac (a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) also suggests the key role of serotonin in bulimia nervosa. In some cases, patients have reported that Prozac helps them control their binging and purging behaviorslending evidence to the serotonergic hypothesis for bulimia nervosa (Engel, Reiss, & Dombeck, 2007).

A variety of other hormones, namely cortisol, orexin A, orexin B, luteinizing hormone, luteinizinghormonereleasing factor, and folliclestimulating hormone, have all been linked to bulimia nervosa as well (Yehuda & Rabinovitz, 2015). While these hormones are all present in healthy individuals, their amount in bulimics is abnormal. For example, cortisol, which is normally released in response to the perception of stress, is found at very high levels in patients with bulimia, as it may be over released due to defects in the hypothalamus (Yehuda & Rabinovitz, 2015).

Orexin A and orexin B, two newly identified hormones, have proven to be related to eating habits in rats (Yehuda & Rabinovitz, 2015). By controlling feelings of hunger and satiety, scientists can oversee the amount of food each that rat consumes. As a result of the injection of Orexin A and B into the rats lateral hypothalamusi, the rats immediately began to eat eight to ten times the amount of food they did prior to the injections (Yehuda & Rabinovitz, 2015). In the next step of the experiment, scientists measured hormone levels when the rats were starved. While scientists have not yet been able to conclude whether a decrease in orexin results in smaller appetites, they are planning on genetically engineering rats to knockout the gene responsible for the production of these hormones, thus allowing scientists to effectively test this deficiency. If the hypothesis holds true that orexin A and orexin B increase appetite, drugs that block orexin may be developed in the near future to help individuals suffering from bulimia nervosa (Yehuda & Rabinovitz, 2015).

Current Drug Therapies. Success of SSRI drug therapies can be seen in a different light, as some individuals argue that the effectiveness of Prozac is due to the fact that the patients Ifunction is being uplifted by the enhancement of the chemical environment in their brain (Fairburn, 1990). The Ifunction is a term describing how the brain creates a sense of self. Thus, treatment with antidepressants will increase an individuals selfesteem with a high likelihood of alleviating the symptoms of bulimia. Therefore, a bulimics Ifunction can be significantly altered by these antidepressant drug therapies, allowing for a healthier and less destructive view of the self. Relief for individuals suffering from eating disorders may very well be found via this chemical pathway.