ArticleClinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society2022
Autonomic nervous system function in women with anorexia nervosa.
Article in Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Momentary physiological indices related to eating disorders: A systematic and methodological review.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2024Pooled it
- Central autonomic network-heart interplay in anorexia nervosa. A cross-spectral dynamic causal modeling study.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2026Article
- Decoding the Spectrum of Anorexia Nervosa: Clinical Impact, Molecular Insights, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Biomolecules · 2025Review
- The Influence of the Sympathetic Nervous System on Cardiometabolic Health in Response to Weight Gain or Weight Loss.Metabolites · 2025Review
- Advancing the allostatic load model in military training research: from theory to application.Frontiers in physiology · 2025Review
- Comment to the article titled: "Autonomic nervous system function in women with anorexia nervosa" by Jenkins and coll.Clinical autonomic research : official journal of the Clinical Autonomic Research Society · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeAbnormalities in autonomic function have been observed in people with anorexia nervosa. However, the majority of investigations have utilised heart rate variability as the sole assessment of autonomic activity. The current study utilised a variety of methodologies to assess autonomic nervous system function in women with a current diagnosis of anorexia, a past diagnosis of anorexia who were weight-restored, and healthy controls.
methodsThe sample included 37 participants: 10 participants with anorexia, 17 weight-restored participants (minimum body mass index > 18.5 for minimum of 12 months) and 10 controls. Assessments of autonomic function included muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) using microneurography, heart rate variability, baroreflex sensitivity, blood pressure variability, head-up tilt table test, sudomotor function and assessment of plasma catecholamines.
resultsMSNA (bursts/min) was significantly decreased in both anorexia (10.22 ± 6.24) and weight-restored (17.58 ± 1.68) groups, as compared to controls (23.62 ± 1.01, p < 0.001 and p = 0.033, respectively). Participants with anorexia had a significantly lower standard deviation in heart rate, lower blood pressure variability and decreased sudomotor function as compared to controls. Weight-restored participants demonstrated decreased baroreflex sensitivity in response to head-up tilt as compared to controls.
conclusionWomen with a current or previous diagnosis of anorexia have significantly decreased sympathetic activity, which may reflect a physiological response to decreased energy intake. During the state of starvation, women with anorexia also displayed decreased sudomotor function. The consequences of a sustained decrease in MSNA are unknown, and future studies should investigate autonomic function in long-term weight-restored participants to determine whether activity returns to normal.
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