Changes in cerebral blood flow in bulimia nervosa

Bulimia nervosa is an eating disorder of which characterized psychopatholog ical symptoms are a recurrent episode of binge eating. The changes in cereb ral blood flow (CBF) in a patient with bulimia nervosa between his or her d ifferent eating phases are presented. CBF was measured quantitatively by me ans of single photon emission computed tomography using I-123 N-isopropyl-p -iodoamphetamine. CBF of the global brain during a binge-eating phase was h igher than that during an anorexic state phase. In the anorexic state, the CBF in the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes on the right side was lo wer than that on the left side. In the binge-eating state, a lack of latera lity between the right and left cerebral hemispheres was found. This findin g suggests that cerebral activity differs between the two phases, and that asymmetry is dependent of the eating state.