Anorexia drugs on the anvil

London, Mar 29 (ANI): Anorexia treating drugs could be developed following study which found that subtle differences in brain development in the womb can be responsible for the condition.

In a research, scientists have found that 70 per cent of anorexic individuals show signs of problems with neurotransmitters, chemicals which help brain cells communicate, reports The Telegraph.

The report, which will be released at a conference at the Institute of Education in London this week, suggests that these developmental changes meant the patients were particularly vulnerable to eating disorders - a finding which prompted authors to propose screening children at the age of eight and experts to claim it could "pave the way for the first drugs".One of the report's authors, Ian Frampton, an honorary consultant in paediatric psychology at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital, said: "Our research shows that certain kids' brains develop in such a way that makes them more vulnerable to the more commonly known risk factors for eating disorders, such as the size-zero debate, media representations of very skinny women and bad parents.

"Arguments that social factors such as girls feeling under pressure to lose weight in order to look like high-profile women in the media contain logical flaws because almost everyone is exposed to them, yet only a small percentage of young people get anorexia."

Susan Ringwood, chief executive of Beat, an eating disorder charity, said the research could "pave the way for the first drugs to be developed to treat eating disorders, similar to the way that anti-depressants help rebalance the brain of people with depression".

"Parents always blame themselves," she said, "but what we are learning more and more is that some people are very vulnerable to anorexia and that is down to genetic factors and brain chemistry and not them trying to look like celebrity models or suffering a major traumatic even early in their lives." (ANI)