Active clinical trials for "Feeding and Eating Disorders"

The Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA) assesses psychosocial impairment secondary to an eating disorder. The aim of this study was to create and validate a Spanish-language version of the CIA. Using a forward-backward translation methodology, we translated the CIA into Spanish and evaluated its psychometric characteristics in a clinical sample of 178 ED patients. Cronbach's alpha values, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and correlations between the CIA and the Eating Attitudes Test-12 and the Health-Related Quality of Life in ED-short form questionnaires evaluated the reliability, construct validity, and convergent validity, respectively. Known-groups validity was also studied comparing the CIA according to different groups; responsiveness was assessed by means of effect sizes.

Breast milk is an extremely complex and highly variable biofliud that has evolved to nourish infants and protect them from disease whilst their own immune system matures. The composition of human breast milk changes in response to many factors, matching the infants requirement according to its age and other characteristics.

Vitamin B1 (Thiamine) is a water soluble essential nutrient; it is synthesized by a variety of plants and microorganisms. Since animals usually cannot synthesis it, humans must be supplied with exogenous vitamin B1 in the diet. The human storage of thiamine is small- about 30mg, an intake of 1-2 mg a day is needed to maintain this pool. Deficiency might occur when the vitamin is depleted from the diet in a short period. Vitamin B1 has a role in energy metabolism and main biosynthetic pathways. Low thiamine causes illnesses in the central and peripheral nervous systems as well as affecting the heart and gastrointestinal systems. Deficiency may occur from malnutrition of different mechanisms such as alcoholism, lack in diet and recently secondary to anti-obesity surgery and few case reports described eating disorders as the reason for developing deficiency causing neuropathy, (1,2) and encephalopathy (3,4,5). One of the presentations of thiamine deficiency is peripheral neuropathy mimicking Guillain-Barre syndrome, and administering the lacking vitamin improves the symptoms. One study examined the prevalence of vitamin B1 deficiency in adult anorexia nervosa patients (6) by measurement of the activation of the enzyme erythrocyte transketolase following addition of thiamin pyrophosphate and comparing them to control of blood donors. This study found significant lower levels of vitamin B1 in the anorectic patient compared to the controls. Rational of the study: The investigators assume that these few cases described of overt neurologic impairment due to vitamin B1 deficiency because of distorted eating are just the "tip of the iceberg" and more eating disorders patients lack thiamine, that may have neuropsychiatric effect on the illness and identifying and treating the shortage may improve the symptoms of the disorder and maybe even the distorted thoughts that are fundamental in eating disorders.

The P300 is one of the cognitive wave of the Event-Related Potential (ERP) that is used to investigate the cognitive process. The P300 component are accepted as electro-physiological markers of neuropsychiatric disorders like alcoholism or drug addiction. Recent scientific data suggest that eating disorders, leading to weight gain and obesity, will be similar of those of drug addiction: it is the incentive sensitization theory that implicates the dopaminergic reward system. The aim of this cross-sectional study is to investigate the alteration of P300 auditory ERP in obese women with eating disorders in comparison with obese and lean women without eating disorders.

Binge Eating Disorder (BED) may be associated with he development of obesity. However, the pathogenesis of BED is currently unclear, thus making the development of treatment and prevention strategies for BED difficult. Differences in the mechanisms regulating food intake may go some way to reveal potential mechanisms for BED.The purpose of this study is to investigate the responses of key gut-derived hormones that are associated with the regulation of food intake and functional brain activity to food cues using fMRI in BED patients and weight matched controls.

This study will use positron emission tomography imaging to investigate changes in dopamine systems in people with anorexia nervosa before and after weight restoration.

Executive functions are part of the high-level cognitive processes essential to the proper functioning of human cognition. They consist mainly of flexibility, updating and inhibition. Some studies have shown a correlation between executive disorders (impaired executive function) and psychiatric disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder or phobias. These executive disorders are related to dysfunctions of the fronto-striatal loops. In addition, other studies have investigated the link that may exist between eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia nervosa and executive functioning. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorders are eating disorders characterized by a dysfunction in food intake with restriction of food or compulsions as well as strong concerns about the body schema. Concerning the executive functioning, these studies highlight a lack of cognitive flexibility for patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa but also dysfunctions depending on the type of pathology (anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa). These studies also highlight the beneficial effects of cognitive remediation on people with eating disorders. However, the investigation of the inhibitory control has not yet been specifically studied. Moreover, since eating disorders are structurally different, a comparison between several pathologies would be interesting to consider. The aim of this study is to determine if a dysfunction of inhibitory control can be highlighted in people with eating disorders. This study would also allow further researches about cognitive remediation suitable for the specific difficulties encountered in these diseases.

Binge-Eating-Disorder (BED) is a common eating disorder characterized by recurring episodes of uncontrollable eating. The underlying neural mechanisms are largely unknown. However, dysfunctional hormonal satiety signaling as well as dysfunctional neural processing of food cues are discussed as possible casual factors in the development and maintenance of this disorder. Additional research is needed to specify the exact contribution of these observations and how they interact with each other. Accordingly, the current study plans to investigate metabolic gut-brain signaling to better understand the underlying causes of abnormal eating behavior. To this end, 25 healthy normal weight control participants as well as 25 patients with BED will be recruited. The responsivity of the hypothalamus (i.e., the core region of homeostatic control) and its interaction with the mesocorticolimbic reward system will be assessed by applying a single-blind, randomized, crossover design of intravenous infusion of glucose or NaCl. This approach allows the study of gut-brain signaling to the hypothalamus and the reward system by controlling for sensory aspects of food intake (sight, smell, and taste). The interaction between the hypothalamus and the mesocorticolimbic reward system will be investigated using an effective connectivity analysis. FMRI with high spatial resolution and with an optimized protocol for the investigation of the hypothalamus and the mesocorticolimbic reward system will be employed. A better understanding of the underlying psychobiological mechanisms of BED is a fundamental requirement for the development of improved prevention and treatment strategies

This study focused on investigating the effects of maternal disordered eating on maternal and child outcomes as part of a secondary data analysis of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of eating disorders in type 1 insulin-dependent diabetes patients