Study finds that anorexic girls also have autistic traits

[Cyanide Lollipop]

Anorexic girls also have autistic traits, study finds | Reuters

By Kate Kelland
LONDON | Mon Aug 5, 2013 7:10pm EDT
(Reuters) - Scientists studying girls with the eating disorder anorexia have found they show a mild echo of the characteristics of autism - a finding which could point to new ways of helping anorexics overcome their illness.

A study by the leading autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge University's Autism Research Centre found that compared to typical girls, those with anorexia have an above-average number of autistic traits.

They were also found to have an above-average interest in systems and order, and below-average scores in empathy - a profile similar, but less pronounced, to that seen in people with autism, suggesting the two disorders may have common underlying features, Baron-Cohen said.

"Traditionally, anorexia has been viewed purely as an eating disorder. This is quite reasonable, since the girls' dangerously low weight and their risk of malnutrition or even death has to be the highest priority," he said.

"But this new research is suggesting that underlying the surface behavior, the mind of a person with anorexia may share a lot with the mind of a person with autism. In both conditions, there is a strong interest in systems. In girls with anorexia, they have latched onto a system that concerns body weight, shape, and food intake."

People with autism have varying levels of impairment across three main areas - social interaction and empathy or understanding, repetitive behavior and interests, and language and communication.

Cohen noted that autism and anorexia share certain features, such as rigid attitudes and behaviors, a tendency to be very self-focused, and a fascination with detail. Both disorders also share similar differences in the structure and function of brain regions involved in social perception.

OVERLOOKED

As many as one in 50 school age children in the United States are diagnosed with autism. In Europe experts say the rate is around one in 100 children. Most cases are diagnosed in boys.

But Bonnie Auyeung, who worked with Baron-Cohen on this latest research, said its findings suggested a proportion of females with autism may be being overlooked or misdiagnosed because doctors see them first with anorexia.

The study, published in the BioMed Central journal Molecular Autism, tested how 66 girls aged 12 to 18 with anorexia but without autism scored on tests to measure autistic traits.

The researchers compared them to more than 1,600 typical teenagers in the same age range, measuring their autistic traits using a score called the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), their "systemising" using the Systemising Quotient (SQ), and their empathy using the Empathy Quotient (EQ).

They found that compared to typical girls on the AQ, five times more girls with anorexia scored in the range where people with autism score. On tests of empathy and systemising, girls with anorexia had a higher SQ, and a reduced EQ, a profile the researchers said parallels that seen in autism.

Tony Jaffa, who co-led the study, said acknowledging that some anorexic patients may also have a higher than normal number of autistic traits and a love of systems offers specialists new ideas for ways to treat people with the eating disorder.

"Shifting their interest away from body weight and dieting on to a different but equally systematic topic may be helpful," he said. "(And) recognizing that some patients with anorexia may also need help with social skills and communication, and with adapting to change, also gives us a new treatment angle."

(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Pravin Char)

 

[Sparticus]

Interesting! There's a lot I could have quoted but I noted the below. In high school- I got close to 2 anorexic women. I always thought it was psychological/emotional trauma or a form of misunderstanding by their family. Girl A in my sophmore year, was one of the most beautiful girls in High School and we often flirted. I had a deep crush on her. Once when I hadn't seen her in awhile, I walked up behind her and gently poked her in the back to say hello.

I touched skin and bones. :-( Later when I asked her to go to a party with me [after I jogged to her house miles away on a holiday] she said "maybe." Out of embarrassment I never asked her out again. Recently I found out years ago her father used to slap her. I cared very much for her and once was invited inside her house to study homework together. Inside the air felt so thick with "be obedient" as if I was in a Convent for Nuns. Like as if all the younger siblings were afraid...Briefly I saw the mother. The father I never met was a former amatuer boxer and said to be a brute. Her brother was the biggest bully of two towns. Her sister, even more beautiful & outgoing, was the best looking girl in high school. They no longer talk to each other.

Met her thru facebook a few months ago and we talked on the phone 2x. She inquired about us dating & getting serious. I feel so sad for what she went thru.
__________________________________________________________________________
Girl B-at a young age was a serious athlete who trained at a highly prestigeous place in NYC. Perhaps destined to be a professional athlete I thought. Her father was a psychologist but I always felt via what she said [or didn't say] that there was high conflict between her and her father. At the time I couldn't understand that since the guy was a psychologist. I was a freshman? in high school and in love with her. Outside her house at night we'd walk down the block together sometimes {I think?} holding hands. I felt she was my girl but needed time and space. I wasn't going to rush her & just enjoyed being with her. I think I'd kiss her on the cheek goodnight & hug her. But I was polite and not aggressive. What a dork I was!

Since I never french kissed her, once I took her down the park to introduce her to others..later I caught a "friend" of mine french kissing her! Wth? I spent months courting her; I was so sad :-( But he was a childhood friend so I let it go. They dated for awhile, I was too crushed to ask. He joined the Navy and she went to College.

Years later visited her at College. She still trained a little in that sport but had given up on having a professional sports career. She gained weight, was chubby, had a boyfriend. Her personality changed somewhat but maybe she was just finding herself. Both of these women I felt powerless to help & emotionally supported them whenever I could. Never knew what happened to her as I moved out of my home town when I was 17.

2 excellent women who at the time had unresolved problems.


"But this new research is suggesting that underlying the surface behavior, the mind of a person with anorexia may share a lot with the mind of a person with autism. In both conditions, there is a strong interest in systems. In girls with anorexia, they have latched onto a system that concerns body weight, shape, and food intake."

 

[King_Oni]

In short; Obsessive traits for people with eating disorders (Anorexia in this case) are similar to people on the autistic spectrum, since they tend to obsess over things as well.

The moment I as a non-autistic person, obsess over my looks, it's quite clear that I don't have a lot of empathy or interest for others. And I actually believe that it's not just people with Anorexia that fall into this category. I guess any disorder that it borderlining obsessive behaviour might fall into this category.

The big issue here is there still is an inherent difference between anorexia and autism, and that's neurology. Where autism is neurological, anorexia is, as far as we know, nothing more than a personality disorder of sorts with no ties of different brain wiring, just different thinking akin to anxiety and the like. And thus in short; the big difference is that you're not born with an anorexic brain.

 

[asnlifecoach]

I would like to see a study on those recovered from anorexia and if they still exhibit autistic traits.

All studies are statistics, probabilities such as more likely, less likely. No study is definitive cause and effect. People interpret these studies definitively, the media creates interesting titles for the topic and people gobble it up. In reality, everyone at one time or another will exhibit an autistic trait or 20.

 

[Ste11aeres]

I would like to see a study on those recovered from anorexia and if they still exhibit autistic traits.

All studies are statistics, probabilities such as more likely, less likely. No study is definitive cause and effect. People interpret these studies definitively, the media creates interesting titles for the topic and people gobble it up. In reality, everyone at one time or another will exhibit an autistic trait or 20.

Someone I know used to have anorexia, and she is obviously NT. I would say that anorexia is an autistic-like thing, but it is not the same thing as actually being ASD. And all of us have NT traits, (it's part of being human) even if we are genuinely Aspies.

 

[Cyanide Lollipop]

Since AS females are harder to detect than males, the question I have is how many women with AS present with anorexia nervosa and thus their AS goes undetected? And would more have success with treatment for anorexia nervosa if it was known that they are also on the spectrum?

 

[Ylva]

I think my obsession with systems stems from control issues – which isn't about power, but about feeling safe by finding some way to keep track – and quite reasonably, that's what anorexics seek, too. A way to feel safer when their world is out of their control. And I don't consider it to originate from my autism, but I suspect that my autism is the reason the world – at least the social world – makes so little sense to me that I develop control issues.

So, yeah, we may have control issues in common with anorexics. Anorexics also have malnutrition in common with many children in poverty-stricken areas, so maybe they are in fact children in poverty-stricken areas.

Regards empathy, I certainly am not very other-people oriented. Other people almost never hold solutions, just more problems. I don't like problems.

 

[MoCoffee]

This is interesting, but I don't think that Anorexics having Autistic traits really tells the whole story. I think we have to consider that anorexia could be, in some people, the result of Aspergers and not the other way around. I have Aspergers and I am a recovering anorexic. I developed anorexia because of my need to eat "safe" foods and as a way to cope with my crippling social anxiety. I never lost weight because I was fat, but because it was the only area of my life I felt I felt I could control.

It is extremely difficult for an Aspie to get appropriate treatment of her anorexia, because this means several months in a hospital, constantly surrounded by people. This proves too challenging for most and they leave treatment early. If the hospital wasn't 13 hours away from home by bus, and if I'd had a car with me, I would have left in the first week. This was my second time in this hospital for treatment, and I'm determined to NEVER go back.

 

[IbiPatria]

I also had anorexia. I was already picky at 5-6 YO. I now realise that it was the sensory issue with food plus the fact I wanted to keep doing what I was obsessing over at the moment. Eating was a non essential.
This just made it so much easier to use it as my way of making sense f things, controlling a world I didn't get later on. I was labeled a chronic anorexic at one point during the 12 years of the disorder.

I'm also of the opinion that while they're not linked in the way one first thinks, being an aspie especially a female Aspie, can definitely lead to anorexia and make it harder to treat than usual as 2 things are going on and one isn't even being addressed.

And I would also like to state that while many of us former or current anorexics/bulimics/etc say we want to lose weight because we're fat, it's not the actual reason. We also are experts at lying to ourselves and removing the 'fat' is what stands in for removing that anxiety, that inability to deal with a confusing, hurtful, illogical (in a way) world.

 

[Kupu2]

Having been anorexic twice in life, at 15 and 27, and now diagnosed with ASD, I have my own perspective on this topic. Both times were when very emotionally charged matters were taking place, beyond my control. At neither time was it simply about being thin and looking like Kate Moss etc. It was control, wanting to be seen as doing something successfully to 'fit in', and by not eating, I had less energy to keep my brain on go 24/7.

This latter point is possibly the most salient in my case. Since having done body building comps three times in the last 5 yrs, under heavily controlled circumstances, I have had better insight into how it all affects me. I kept a journal during that time and I observe that the things I wrote were eerily similar to my notes at 27. This is an 11 yr gap between them.

I loved the focus on reaching my intake levels, the quietening of my brain and being able to directly control myself for myself. It was ALL up to me to see the numbers drop. And don't women who take up less space get noticed less YET rewarded for doing so?? Given I cannot see myself in the mirror (I am self blind), what I looked like meant nothing. But seeing body fat levels decrease and my brain become jelly meant I was succeeding.

Since turning to weight lifting, I still have control, but over gaining strength and size of my body. Same dynamics as anorexia and dieting for comps, but so much healthier. My stronger body allows me to work at a physically active job, but my brain stays busy by learning something new everyday.

So, the key for my 'recovery' has been to swap the harmful goals to life affirming goals and to tire my brain with continual learning.

How does this relate to ASD? I suspect my deep desire to fit in meant my autistic tendencies found a socially acceptable goal and allowed an avenue for me to exercise control in a condoned way. (Heaven!) Most of the allistic women I know have dieted, but never gone to the extreme lengths I went to in controlling themselves or shaping their bodies. I think that is the link in this hypothesis. The determination, depth of control and the ease at which anorexics ignore body cues, such as hunger and aches. I know my autistic traits became more pronounced during my anorexic years and my comp era.

It would not surprise me if there is a strong correlation between females with ASD and anorexia. I'm just not sure how to articulate that link effectively.