ArticleBrain and behavior2020
Increased urge for movement, physical and mental restlessness, fundamental symptoms of restricting anorexia nervosa?
Article in Brain and behavior, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 44 citations in OpenAlex.
- Famine, plague, and slaughters: The fleeing famine hypothesis of anorexia nervosa reconsidered.Psychological review · 2026Article
- Personalized models of eating disorder symptoms and suicide risk in anorexia nervosa spectrum disorders: protocol for a longitudinal, passive-sensing study.BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Evaluation of the Sphingolipidomic Profile in Women with Anorexia Nervosa: Relationships with Parameters Related to Body Composition, Cardiovascular Function, Glucometabolic Homeostasis, and Lipoprotein Metabolism.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring the role of beta-endorphin in activity-based anorexia in mice.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Tapping into truth: an exploratory cross-sectional analysis of psychomotor symptoms and typing behaviour in an adolescent observational cohort.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2025Article
- Acute Activity Urges Predict Lower Early Weight Gain During Inpatient Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa.The International journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
- Short-term effects of a multidisciplinary inpatient intensive rehabilitation treatment on body image in anorexia nervosa.Journal of eating disorders · 2023Article
- The State Urge to be Physically Active-Questionnaire (SUPA-Q): Development and validation of a state measure of activity urges in patients with eating disorders.Brain and behavior · 2023Article
- Case report: Rapid improvements of anorexia nervosa and probable myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome upon metreleptin treatment during two dosing episodes.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Similarities and differences regarding acute anorexia nervosa and semi-starvation: does behavioral thermoregulation play a central role?Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Motivation states to move, be physically active and sedentary vary like circadian rhythms and are associated with affect and arousal.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2023Article
- Food Restriction in Mice Induces Food-Anticipatory Activity and Circadian-Rhythm-Related Activity Changes.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Low leptin levels are associated with elevated physical activity among lean school children in rural Tanzania.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Inhibition of POMC neurons in mice undergoing activity-based anorexia selectively blunts food anticipatory activity without affecting body weight or food intake.American journal of physiology. Regulatory, integrative and comparative physiology · 2022Article
- Urges to Move and Other Motivation States for Physical Activity in Clinical and Healthy Populations: A Scoping Review Protocol.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Restlessness and an Increased Urge to Move (Drive for Activity) in Anorexia Nervosa May Strengthen Personal Motivation to Maintain Caloric Restriction and May Augment Body Awareness and Proprioception: A Lesson From Leptin Administration in Anorexia Nervosa.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Review
- Metaverse-based virtual reality experience and endurance performance in sports economy: Mediating role of mental health and performance anxiety.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- β-endorphin differentially contributes to food anticipatory activity in male and female mice undergoing activity-based anorexia.Physiological reports · 2021Article
- The Rise and Fall of Dopamine: A Two-Stage Model of the Development and Entrenchment of Anorexia Nervosa.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveContinued mobility in the presence of severe weight loss is a well known, yet insufficiently researched characteristic of anorexia nervosa (AN). This study was designed to assess the prevalence of the drive for activity, here operationalized as an increased urge for movement, physical restlessness, and mental restlessness.
methodParticipants were 83 female consecutively admitted adolescent patients qualifying for a diagnosis of AN (ICD-10), restricting subtype. Information collected included responses to a questionnaire inquiring retrospectively about physical and psychological reactions after significant weight loss (on average 12.5 kg) and to measures of psychiatric and eating disorder pathology and exercise behaviors at hospital admission.
resultsOver 80% of AN patients reported experiencing, at least partly, either, an increased urge for movement, physical or mental restlessness after significant weight loss. Altogether 95.1% reported, at least partly, one or a combination of two or all three symptoms. The sensations coexisted with equally high levels of fatigue and loss of energy, typically observed in starvation. The increased urge for movement and physical restlessness were foremost associated with reported actual physical activity and with weight loss. By contrast, mental restlessness was strongly linked to the degree of eating disorder pathology and to the severity of psychiatric symptoms. DISCUSSION: This is the first investigation of the presence of an increased urge for movement, physical restlessness, and mental restlessness after significant weight loss in patients with acute AN. The symptoms, given their high frequency and specificity, are likely pathogenic for AN and, if replicated, deserve to be considered for inclusion as diagnostic criteria for AN.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.