Abstract
BackgroundStudies show that adult patients with anorexia nervosa display cognitive impairments. These impairments may be caused by illness-related circumstances such as low weight. However, the question is whether there is a cognitive adaptation to enduring undernutrition in anorexia nervosa. To our knowledge, cognitive performance has not been assessed previously in a patient with anorexia nervosa with a body mass index as low as 7.7 kg/m2.Case presentationWe present the cognitive profile of a 35-year-old woman with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa who was diagnosed at the age of 10 years. She was assessed with a broad neuropsychological test battery three times during a year. Her body mass index was 8.4, 9.3, and 7.7 kg/m2, respectively. Her general memory performance was above the normal range and she performed well on verbal and design fluency tasks. Her working memory and processing speed were within the normal range. However, her results on cognitive flexibility tasks (set-shifting) were below the normal range.ConclusionsThe case study suggests that it is possible to perform normally cognitively despite extreme and chronic malnutrition though set-shifting ability may be affected. This opens for discussion whether patients with anorexia nervosa can maintain neuropsychological performance in spite of extreme underweight and starvation.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02502617. Registered 20 July 2015.
Highlights
Studies show that adult patients with anorexia nervosa display cognitive impairments
The case study suggests that it is possible to perform normally cognitively despite extreme and chronic malnutrition though set-shifting ability may be affected. This opens for discussion whether patients with anorexia nervosa can maintain neuropsychological performance in spite of extreme underweight and starvation
A growing amount of evidence indicate that anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with impaired or inefficient neuropsychological performance in relation to healthy control subjects, regarding attention [1, 2], memory [1,2,3,4], processing speed [4], and especially the executive functions [5] central coherence [6], decision
Summary
Studies show that adult patients with anorexia nervosa display cognitive impairments. Case presentation: We present the cognitive profile of a 35-year-old woman with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa who was diagnosed at the age of 10 years She was assessed with a broad neuropsychological test battery three times during a year. A growing amount of evidence indicate that anorexia nervosa (AN) is associated with impaired or inefficient neuropsychological performance in relation to healthy control subjects, regarding attention [1, 2], memory [1,2,3,4], processing speed [4], and especially the executive functions [5] central coherence [6], decision-. Newer research on healthy subjects, somewhat inconclusive, indicates affected psychomotor speed and executive functions following short-term semi-starvation [17]
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