A collaborative study involving McGill University and French teams discovered that donepezil, a drug increasing brain acetylcholine, can potentially treat anorexia nervosa. Early clinical trials have shown positive outcomes, and further studies are planned. Researchers have identified a neurological mechanism for anorexia nervosa and a potential treatment using donepezil.
This drug, originally designed to increase acetylcholine in the brain, has shown promising results in reversing anorexia-like behavior in mice and is currently being tested in clinical trials. The researchers also suggest that donepezil could be beneficial for other compulsive disorders. Groundbreaking Research on Anorexia Nervosa A McGill University-led research team working in collaboration with a French team (CNRS, INSERM, and Sorbonne university) believes it has identified both the neurological mechanism underlying anorexia nervosa as well as a possible cure.
The international team’s findings, published this week in Nature Communications , have the potential to improve the lives of millions of people around the world, mostly women, who suffer from the common eating disorder, which has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disease. Working with mice, the researchers discovered that a deficit in the acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter in an area of the brain called the striatum, which is associated with the reward system, can lead to excessive habit formation and precipitate the compulsive self-sta.