Are Girls With Eating Disorders Autistic?
In an interesting article based on neurological evidence, Professor Janet Treasure speaks at length to Katy Campbell about her theory of genetically caused eating disorders.
Treasure says that eating disorder research needs to focus on the underlying neurological network and specifically, how information is processed by people with eating disorders. For example, she’s found that those with EDs are likely to have difficulty changing self-set rules and learned behaviours - leading them to fixed problem solving, obsessiveness and overperfectionism.
This type of mindset has been described by some as the female Asperger’s Syndrome - an austistic spectrum disorder associated with impaired social ability and repetitive behaviour patterns. Those afflicted with Asperger’s have a tendancy to focus on specific areas of interest and also can experience hypo or hypersensitivity to stimuli. Also common is the problem of interpreting facial and social cues, as well as self stimulation (such as rocking back and forth).
Ways that Asperger’s and EDs are related include the lack of ability to shift between tasks or matters once a focus has been made on one area; response inflexibility in the forms of strict adherance to plans is another symptom that people with EDs showed. Weak central coherance - the ability to be distracted from a social event by an object and being able to refocus on the event, for example - is another shared trait.
What this research can do is point mental and medical professionals in a more scientific direction in relation to treatment methods. A big positive, for sure.
For more information on autism, check out this page.
eating disorders, mental health research, eating disorder research, autism, Asperger’s syndrome
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