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Bulimia Revisited

Hurst, Kim (2023) Bulimia Revisited. Master's Thesis / Essay, Biomedical Sciences.

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Abstract

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder that has a higher prevalence in women and often has an age of onset during puberty. The neurobiology of bulimia is not yet well understood and researchers still do not have a sufficient animal model to portray it, this also makes it difficult to have targeted treatments. For this reason, this paper will try to answer four questions; Are there animal models to portray bulimia nervosa? What is the neurobiology of bulimia nervosa? What are the behavioural or pharmacological interventions? Lastly, what causes the sex disparity in bulimia? As rats are not able to purge the sham feeding model is often used to mimic bulimia but this model is not able to mimic the psychological aspects of the disorder. The neurobiology remains elusive, but the dopaminergic, serotonergic, and opioid pathways are implicated, along with the hunger hormone ghrelin. Without a better understanding of the neurobiology it is difficult to design treatments for the disorder, but fluoxetine and cognitive behavioural therapy are the gold standard at the moment, and new therapies are being researched. Finally, it is likely that the gonadal hormones are responsible for the sex disparity, but researchers have yet to determine how. It may depend on when in life a person is exposed to high or low levels of each and the sex of a person to result in an increased risk of bulimia. In summary, more research must be done to better understand bulimia nervosa.

Item Type: Thesis (Master's Thesis / Essay)
Supervisor name: Buwalda, B.
Degree programme: Biomedical Sciences
Thesis type: Master's Thesis / Essay
Language: English
Date Deposited: 28 Apr 2023 11:42
Last Modified: 28 Apr 2023 11:42
URI: https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/29679

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