From: gts (gts@optexinc.com)
Date: Wed Aug 28 2002 - 19:12:17 MDT
Rafal,
re: the experience of reward
This research abstract makes explicit the fact that anhedonia (the
diminished capacity to experience pleasure and reward) has its
biological underpinnings in defects of the mesolimbic dopamine system
(as opposed to the cortex).
ABSTRACT:
Sensitivity to the rewarding effects of food and exercise in the eating
disorders.
Davis C, Woodside DB.
Department of Psychiatry, The University Health Network, and the Faculty
of Medicine, University of Toronto, Canada.
The diminished capacity to experience pleasure or reward ("anhedonia")
has its biological underpinnings in the mesolimbic dopamine system and
is strongly implicated in risk for a variety of addictive behaviors. The
present study tested the prediction that patients with anorexia nervosa
(AN) would be more anhedonic than those with bulimia nervosa (BN)-a
factor that could contribute to their respective avoidance and approach
relationship to food. We also tested the idea that anhedonia would be
correlated with high-level exercising from the viewpoint that the latter
serves as a compensatory behavior for a blunted affect. AN patients of
the restrictor subtype (n = 78) and BN patients with no history of AN (n
= 76) were included in the regression analyses. Patients were also
classified as excessive exercisers or moderate/nonexercisers according
to information gathered during a structured clinical interview. Findings
were largely supportive of our predictions. AN patients were highly
anhedonic compared to BN patients, and excessive exercisers tended to be
more anhedonic than those who did not exercise. We discuss the AN-BN
differences in capacity for reward/pleasure in the context of the common
psychobiological links between the eating disorders and drug and alcohol
addiction, and speculate on how these differences might relate to the
etiology and pathophysiology of both AN and BN. Copyright 2002, Elsevier
Science (USA). All rights reserved.
PMID: 11994836 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
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