Anorexia nervosa: The rat or the couch?

Authors

  • Emilio Gutiérrez García Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5944/ap.8.1.196

Keywords:

Anorexia nervosa

Abstract

A review of the history of anorexia nervosa emphasizes the poor results obtained by the psychological and pharmacological treatments associated with the different changing conceptualization through time. Research with an analogous animal model known as Activity-based Anorexia (ABA) offers a different perspective of the human disorder. According to this animal model, hyperactivity is not considered to be a wilful strategy to burn calories, but a bio-behavioural response linked to the physiological effects of weight loss. The increase of ambient temperature allowed rescuing animals from ABA, constituting a pre-clinical evidence of the potential therapeutic role of heat application to anorexia nervosa patients, which was one of the first recommendations in the history of the treatment of this disorder.

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Author Biography

Emilio Gutiérrez García, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Dpto. de Psicología Clínica y Psicobiología,Facultad de Psicología,Campus Universitario Sur,15782 Santiago de Compostela, España.

How to Cite

Gutiérrez García, E. (2011). Anorexia nervosa: The rat or the couch?. Acción Psicológica, 8(1), 57–70. https://doi.org/10.5944/ap.8.1.196

Issue

Section

Artículos del monográfico [Monograph´s articles]