Stress and Neurofeedback in Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa Clinical Trial

Official title: Neural Mechanisms of Negative Affect and Neurofeedback in Anorexia Nervosa

Status Active, not recruiting

Clinical Trial Summary

Anorexia nervosa (AN) and atypical AN (AAN) are severe psychiatric illnesses associated with high disease burden including high treatment costs and excessive mortality rates. Primary characteristics of AN and AAN are food restriction, associated fear of weight gain, and a disturbance in how one's body weight or shape is experienced.The underlying neural mechanisms for the core illness behaviors of food restriction and body size overestimation in anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa are not well understood.

This project will use neurofeedback and advanced psychophysical methods to assess and moderate the neural and behavioral responses to stress and relate those results to the naturalistic environment. The results will guide the development of novel interventions.

Clinical Trial Description

The overall strategy is a cross-sectional study, involving 3 subject groups, each subject studied on two study days (one negative and one neutral affect day, randomized), one week apart; on both study days subjects will undergo functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during which they complete tasks for 1) neurofeedback-reward learning and 2) body size estimation. Before and after each scan, and in the week between scans, subjects will be assessed for positive and negative affect and how it affects food intake. ;

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Anorexia
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Atypical Anorexia Nervosa

• NCT number: NCT05834816
• Study type: Interventional
• Source: University of California, San Diego
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: April 26, 2023
• Completion date: March 31, 2029