Young people’s eating disorders could be linked to lagging brain development, study finds
Genetics, differences in brain development, and mental health in the teenage years could help explain why some young people develop eating disorders, a new study suggests.
An estimated 20 million people in Europe suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder, with young women and teenagers disproportionately affected.
For the new study, which was published in the journal Nature Mental Health, nearly 1,000 young people from England, Ireland, France, and Germany provided genetic data, completed surveys on their eating habits and wellbeing, and got magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at ages 14 and 23.
When they were 23, the international researchers split the participants into three groups: healthy eaters (42 per cent), restrictive eaters (33 per cent), and emotional or uncontrolled eaters (25 per cent).
Restrictive eaters were those who limited their food consumption in order to control their weight and appearance such as people who dieted and purged.
Emotional or uncontrolled eaters were prone to binge-eating and tended to eat compulsively or in response to negative feelings.
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Working backward, the study found that 14-year-olds with anxiety, depression, or attention problems were more likely to have unhealthy eating habits by the time they were 23.
Unhealthy eating behaviours were also tied to obesity and having a higher genetic risk for high body mass index (BMI), a measure used to diagnose obesity.
The results underscore the “potential benefits of improved education aimed at addressing unhealthy dietary habits and maladaptive coping strategies,” Sylvane Desrivières, a biological psychiatry professor at King’s College London and the study’s senior author, said in a statement.
For example, parents can pay close attention to their teenagers’ habits at home, teachers and students can be more aware of how relationships at school could “exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and lead to eating disorders,” and healthcare professionals should understand the brain’s role in eating disorders, Desrivières told Euronews Health.
‘Critical role of brain development’
Notably, it wasn’t just teenagers’ habits or genetics that seemed to predict disordered eating in young adulthood. The MRI scans showed that unhealthy eaters had less pronounced and delayed brain maturation during adolescence.
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The brain’s prefrontal cortex is fully developed around age 25, and some research has shown that because teenagers’ brains haven’t fully matured, they are more vulnerable to risky behaviours and environmental stressors.
In the study, brain maturation played a role in both mental health problems at age 14 and unhealthy eating at age 23, independent of the young people’s BMI.
Reduced maturation of the cerebellum – the part of the brain that controls appetite – also helped explain the link between genetic risks for high BMI and restrictive eating habits among 23-year-olds, they said.
The findings highlight the “critical role of brain development in shaping eating habits,” said Xinyang Yu, a PhD student at King’s College London and the study’s first author.
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Other studies have found that being seriously underweight can affect brain and cognitive development and that abnormal development in the parts of the brain that control rewards and inhibitions could be a trigger for binge-eating disorder.
The King’s College researchers said the study could be used to create more personalised tools to help young people who may develop eating disorders.
They previously found differences in brain scans years before teenagers developed unhealthy eating behaviours, meaning it could be possible to identify at-risk youth before the problematic habits begin.
Desrivières said the next step is to continue collecting data for the same cohort of people to understand how the differences in brain maturation and eating habits affect them beyond their 20s.
“This could play a crucial role in preventing eating disorders and supporting overall brain health,” Desrivières said.
