Active clinical trials for "Anorexia Nervosa"

The main aim of this study is to develop a virtual reality (VR) embodiment-based exposure technique to improve the treatment of anorexia nervosa (AN). A systematic and hierarchical body exposure intervention in which the patient owns a virtual avatar is proposed. At first, the virtual body matches with the real measurements of the patient, then the experimenter will progressively increase Body Mass Index (BMI) values of the virtual body during the exposure sessions until a healthy BMI value is reached (e.g. BMI score of 20). In this study a VR embodiment-based technique that combines visuo-motor and a visuo-tactile stimulation procedures is proposed in order to increase illusory feelings of ownership over the virtual body. It is hypothesised that adding a VR-based body exposure intervention to the classical cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) will significantly reduce symptomatology in AN patients.

The present study is a placebo-controlled randomised study on the effects of estrogen replacement upon AN-associated psychopathology, several neurocognitive domains and appetite-regulating circuits in female patients with AN. The investigators aim at assessing peripheral concentrations of neuroendocrinological components of the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Gonadal (HPG) and Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis, as well as appetite-regulating hormones in AN and to examine associations with AN-associated psychopathology and neurocognitive performances before (baseline), during and after inpatient psychotherapy of female patients receiving concomitant treatment with estrogens (vs. placebo).

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a frequent, potentially life-threatening eating disorder characterized by a resistance to maintaining body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height, an intense fear of weight gain or being "fat" even though underweight, a loss of menstrual periods in girls and women post-puberty and a disturbance in the experience of body weight or shape. Body weight and shape dissatisfaction is linked to the development, maintenance and relapse of AN. Neuroimaging studies have shown that the inferior parietal cortex is involved in body image perception and less activated in patients with AN compared with healthy subjects. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is used to modulate cortical excitability, and particularly to increase excitability with high-frequency rTMS. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of "excitatory" high-frequency rTMS over the "hypoactive" inferior parietal cortex of 54 patients with AN. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study will compare effective rTMS (2000 ten-Hz stimulations per session, applied at 90% of the resting motor threshold, with 10 sessions in two weeks) versus placebo rTMS. Assessments will be performed before rTMS and after the last rTMS session (immediately after, at 15 days and three months). The principal criteria for judgement is a body image satisfaction scale (Boby Shape Questionnaire, BSQ-34). The secondary criteria for judgement are eating behaviour scales (Eating Attitude Test, EAT-40; Bulimia test, BULIT and Eating Disorders Inventory, EDI-2), the Hamilton depression rating scale and Hamilton anxiety rating scale, a quality of life scale (Short-Form Health Survey, SF-36), a body composition analysis using a Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry and the alpha-MSH autoantibodies levels (biomarker for eating disorders recently described). Inferior parietal cortex rTMS could not only improve body image perception, but also help in the treatment of eating disorders, allowing weight gain with a decreased anxiety and improving patients' quality of life. Also positive results could have direct therapeutic implications with the possibility to complete regular rTMS sessions, or to implant extradural electrodes for chronic parietal cortex stimulation.

Body distortions are responsible for anorexic behavior reinforcing loops. It is necessary to target this behavior and develop appropriate therapies taking into account the perceptual (implicit) and conceptual (explicit) phenomenon of body representations. The main originality of the proposed program consists on combining virtual visual impulses and multisensory recalibration (touch, proprioception, vestibular sensations) in order to compare the body distortions evolution in anorexic patients with or without a multimodal care program including Virtual Reality from its own body scan, coupled or not to a multisensory remediation.

The primary aim of this study is to study how Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) tailored to specific anorexia nervosa (AN) or bulimia nervosa (BN) brain activation alterations will promote recovery and to study how inhibitory tDCS (Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation) will reduce symptoms of body image distortion in a second sample of AN and BN groups.

Anorexia nervosa is a predominantly female eating disorder that most often appears in adolescence. The latter leads to strict and voluntary food deprivation for several months or even years. The lifetime prevalence of anorexia is 1.4% in women and 0.2% in men. Ultimately, only half of people treated for anorexia nervosa in adolescence recover, 30% simply improve, 21% suffer from chronic disorders and 5 to 6% die. At the same time, between a quarter and half of patients abandon their current treatment, including during hospitalization. Relapses occur during the evolution of anorexia nervosa. Even more worrying, mortality is highest the year following the patient's discharge from hospital. This appears to be due to somatic complications in more than half of cases (most often cardiac arrest), to suicide in 27% of cases. Researchers are still trying to clarify the mechanisms involved in the emergence and persistence of this disorder. The objective is to obtain more verified and faster cures. However, the obstacles to successful treatment are mainly due to the denial of disorders and thinness. From a neurocognitive perspective, the representation one has of one's body is underpinned by two types of representations, i.e. body image and body schema. It has long been shown that body image is altered in anorexia nervosa. More recently, authors have shown that the distortion of the body representation was however more extensive and also affected the body schema. Patients find themselves too fat despite obvious thinness and move through space as if this were really the case. Worryingly, these distortions in bodyschema seem to persist after therapeutic management. Despite the potential role of body-scheme distortions in maintaining the disorder, as well as the risk of relapse, the difficulties in assessing body-scheme are significant. Indeed, recovery in these pathologies is often determined according to the Body Mass Index, self-declaration and questionnaires evaluating body image, again limiting the verification of the resorption of distortions in the body schema. Investigators have therefore developed the systematic, ergonomic and simplified evaluation of the body schema in patients suffering from anorexia nervosa at the time of diagnosis in an expert center, but also during follow-up evaluations thanks to the use of an evaluation platform of the body schema, i.e. the body in brain platform, developed by the LIP/PC2S laboratory and the SATT Linksium which allows the evaluation of the body schema.

EXCENTRICC is a platform for scientific collaboration between different disciplines, all working on a common theme: adrenocortical hormones. In this EXCENTRICC sub-study, associations are studied between cortisol levels and depression, anxiety, disease severity and hippocampal and insula volume in the brain in anorexia nervosa.

This is a study testing whether an online Multifamily Guided Self-Help Family Based Treatment (FBT) for Anorexia Nervosa in adolescents aged 12 to 17 is acceptable and useful to families. This online Multifamily Guided Self-Help version of FBT consists of 12 weekly 60-minute telemedicine groups made up of parents from 4-5 families of young people with AN, coupled with access to an online guided self-help platform over the course of 6 months. The feasibility of online Guided Self-Help Family-Based Treatment for Anorexia is unknown, and the investigators hope to identify an adequate treatment for those who do not have access to in-person FBT.

The purpose of this study is to compare the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of lower calorie refeeding versus higher calorie refeeding in hospitalized adolescents with anorexia nervosa.

Self-admission is a novel treatment tool whereby patients who are well-known to a service who have high previous utilization of health care are offered the possibility of self-admission to the inpatient ward for up to seven days without having their motive for admission questioned. Patients are free to admit themselves because of deteriorating mental health, acute stress, lack of structure in their everyday life, loneliness, boredom, or any other reason. The patients decide when they want to admit themselves and can discharge themselves at any time. The purpose behind the self-admission model is to increase the availability of inpatient care for severely ill patients, to avoid stressful and possibly destructive visits to the emergency service, and to decrease total inpatient care utilization. Patients offered a contract for self-admission usually have a history of repeated and prolonged hospitalizations. By encouraging them to monitor their own mental health status and allowing them to seek help swiftly when they are feeling poorly, the delay from first signs of deterioration to admission can be minimized and full-blown relapse can be avoided, ultimately reducing the total time spent in hospital. Until now, projects of self-admission have mainly targeted patients with long-standing psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder. Starting in August 2014, a four-year clinical project at the Stockholm Centre for Eating Disorders began offering self-admission to patients with severe and enduring eating disorders. The purpose of this study is to determine whether this model is viable in a specialized eating disorders treatment setting, if it does lead to increased patient participation and agency and a reduction of the total time spent hospitalized for this particular patient group, and if it is cost-effective.