Eating Disorders and the Endocannabinoid System
摘要
Eating disorders (ED) are complex and life-threatening mental illnesses with an impact on the personal life characterized by severe disturbances in eating behavior and body weight. ED have a high incidence among the population (8.4% of women and 2.2% of men), with the most common diagnoses being anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder. More and more evidence suggest that the endocannabinoid system (ECS) participates in the regulation of food intake and metabolism both at central and peripheral levels, indicating it may have an important role in the development and maintainment of ED. In this chapter, we will resume the most recent clinical and preclinical findings about ECS in ED, summing up the alterations that have been detected in ECS in the different pathologies and focusing on the putative therapeutic alternatives acting on ECS which have been proposed for the treatment of these diseases.