What is bulimia?
Bulimia falls under mental disorders and is characterised by episodes of excessive overeating followed by purging in the form of vomiting, excessive exercise, or consumption of laxatives. In most cases, bulimia patients have low self-esteem and feel powerless in the situation. Therefore, is bulimia most commonly treated with behavioural therapy. Researchers from Karolinska Instituttet in Sweden have discovered that bulimia patients can, potentially, be treated with regular birth control pills.
‘The pill’ as a treatment option?
‘We could prove that a third of the female patients with bulimia had metabolic diseases, which could explain the development of bulimia. These metabolic diseases are often the result of a hormonal imbalance’, Dr. Sabine Naessen explains.
What are the assumptions based on?
Bulimia is one of the most common eating disorders and is ten times more common in women than men. In most cases, the cause of the disorder is believed to be psychological and should be treated with a combination of antidepressants and cognitive therapy. However, the results indicated that bulimia is not just all in the patients’ heads, but a combination of hormones, genes and psychological components.
Blood samples from the patients, showed a higher concentration of testosterone than normal and a lower concentration of the female sex hormone oestrogen than normal. Testosterone plays a part in the regulation of appetite and increased levels of testosterone can cause a feeling of hunger and an increase in appetite.
It is an alternative treatment option?
The concentration of testosterone can be adjusted by ingesting medications containing oestrogen – birth control pills. In the experiments of Dr. Sabine Nasessen’s study proved that the desire for food rich in fat and sugar decreased and that satiety was normalised in half the patients after a short period of time. Three patients were even cured over the month of treatment with the pill.
‘We see a favourable effect of the hormone treatment, which could be an alternative, should cognitive therapy prove insufficient’, claims Dr. Naessen.
