Neuropsychological and structural brain changes in anorexia nervosa before and after refeeding

Abstract

The neuropsychological performance and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) brain appearance of a consecutive series of 46 in-patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) was compared with that of 41 normal-weight controls. The groups were matched for sex, age, estimated pre-morbid intelligence and education. AN patients who had gained at least 10% of their body weight were retested and rescanned. Controls were retested after a similar interval. The AN group performed significantly worse than the controls on tasks measuring attention, visuospatial ability and memory. On tasks assessing flexibility and learning, no group differences were evident although an examination of deficits in individuals revealed ..