Environmental and metabolic determinants of binge-eating behaviour
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Studying the effect of acute stress on metabolic and neural determinants of binge-eating behaviour
IRAS ID
225937
Contact name
Paul Fletcher
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Our eating behaviour can be affected by our mood. Negative mood states in particular can cause people to lose their appetite or overeat, and this may be important for people with eating disorders. We know that eating behaviour is usually controlled by complex interactions between the brain and certain circulating hormones in the blood. Changes in our environment that lead to negative mood can affect our brain, as well as the levels of specific circulating hormones in our bloodstream. This study aims to explore how this happens and its relevance to eating disorders. We will invite healthy women and those suffering with anorexia nervosa (binge-purge subtype) and bulimia nervosa to participate. Interested volunteers will first complete an outpatient screening session at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, UK before returning for a two-day study session. During the study session, subjects will be asked to complete a series of questionnaires, computer tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scanning, and we will collect blood samples at several time points to measure feeding and mood-related hormones. One of the brain scans includes a task that may be unpleasant to some volunteers, and the other scan will not include this task. We will collect several blood samples during the brain scans, so we can measure how both brain activity and hormones in blood are affected by the two mood states. The results of this study will aid the development of new treatment methods for loss-of-control eating in women with eating disorders.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge East Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/EE/0304
Date of REC Opinion
16 Aug 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion