Altered gastric emptying and secretion in primary anorexia nervosa

Primary anorexia nervosa: Gastric emptying and antral motor activity in 53 patients

“…The results of the present study confirm the reported high incidence of delayed gastric emptying (Dubois et al, 1979;Holt et al, 1981;McCallum et al, 1985;Stacher et al, 1986Stacher et al, , 1987aAbell et al, 1987;Rigaud et al, 1987;Robinson et al, 1988) and reduced antral motor activity (Abell et al, 1987;Stacher et al, 198713) in patients with PAN. The mechanisms underlying these changes are still unclear.…”

“…In chronically starved prisoners of war (Markowski, 1947), neglected children (Gloebl, Capitano, & Kirkpatrick, 1976;Franken, Fox, Smith, & Smith, 1978), PAN patients (Russell, 1966;Scobie, 1973;Jennings & Klidjian, 1974), but also in healthy volunteers participating in starvation experiments (Keys et al, 1950), acute gastric distension was observed upon the ingestion of large quantities of food. This distension might, as well as the delay in gastric emptying (Dubois et al, 1979;Holt et al, 1981;McCallum et al, 1985;Stacher et al, 1986Stacher et al, , 1987aAbell et al, 1987;Rigaud et al, 1987;Robinson et al, 1988) and the reduced antral motor activity (Stacher et al, 1986;Abell et al, 1987) observed in PAN, primarily result from muscular decompensation. When the distension progresses, venous occlusion, infarction, and rupture may occur (Evans, 1968;Saul, Dekker, & Watson, 1981;Abdu, Garritano, & Culver, 1987).…”

Acute Gastric Dilatation, Necrosis and Perforation Complicating Restrictive-Type Anorexia Nervosa

“…In manometric testing of cachectic patients, the peristaltic movements of the gastric antrum and the duodenum are weaker then in the normal population. [7][8][9] This may arise from impaired action of the intrinsic enteric nervous system. [7][8][9] The atonicity of the proximal gastrointestinal tract is also attributed to electrolyte imbalance common in anorexia, such as severe hypokalemia and hypophosphatemia, which were not recorded in the present case.…”

The Beverly Hills eating disorder: The mass marketing of anorexia nervosa

“…All evidence suggests that anorexia nervosa is increasingly common, affecting about one in one hundred teenagers, of whom up to 20% die (Dubois, et al, 1979) and bulimia affecting as many as 20% of college age females.…”