Researcher: Binge eating may be linked to early childhood trauma

Nearly eight in 10 people with binge-eating disorder survived some sort of childhood abuse, neglect or other trauma.

A Virginia Tech scientist has the answer as to the link.

“What we found is a specific brain circuit that is vulnerable to stress, causing it to become dysfunctional,” said Sora Shin, an assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, whose research revealed how a pathway in the brain that typically provides signals to stop eating that may be altered by early life trauma.

The discovery, obtained from studies in mice, was published in Nature Neuroscience this week.

Stress symptoms can affect our body, thoughts, feelings, and behavior. In Shin’s finding, the stress on mice who were separated from their littermates may trigger lifelong eating behavior changes.

Binge-eating disorder is marked by recurring episodes of eating more rapidly than normal to beyond a feeling of fullness and by feelings of distress and loss of control, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

To identify the connection between the disorder and early life trauma, Shin and her lab team studied the impact of a hormone in the brain called leptin. Leptin has long been known suppress appetite and weight gain by signaling the brain that it’s time to stop eating.

The team found that in mice that experienced early life stress and exhibited behavior similar to binge-eating, leptin is less effective in a part of the brain called the lateral hypothalamus, where many behaviors are regulated. Without these signals from the brain, the overeating continues.

Digging deeper, the researchers identified neurons in another part of the brain called the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray that respond to the message from leptin and lateral hypothalamus, thereby regulating binge eating.

“There is much more research to do,” Shin said, “but by knowing the specific molecule and receptors in the brain to target, we can now provide insight and the foundation for developing therapeutic strategies for the disorder.”