Hormonal abnormality found in patients with anorexia nervosa
Evidence of a hypothalamic defect in patients with anorexia nervosa raises the question of "biological vulnerability" to the condition.
Anorexia nervosa is seen primarily in young women (a few cases have been reported in prepubertal boys). The patients go on relentless diets that may produce gross emaciation and even death. The disorder is invariably accompanied by amenorrhea.
There had been no good explanation of this behavior, but Jack Katz, MD, believes it may be due in part to an "immature" pattern of circadian luteinizing hormore (LH) secretion. In his report on ten patients, to the New York meeting of the American Psychopathological Association, he said that the known role of the hypothalamus in eating behavior, as well as in endocrine function, makes it tempting to postulate a preexisting hypothalamic defect that accounts for both the extraordinary dieting and the disturbance in
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