WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2026 (NewsDay News) — Girls with anorexia nervosa (AN) have impaired gastrointestinal function compared with healthy controls, according to a study published online June 17. JAMA Psychiatry.
Charles Verdonck, MD, Ph.D., of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and colleagues examined markers of gastrointestinal motility in weight-restored individuals with AN. Participants were recovered weight-limiting women with AN and healthy age- and sex-matched comparators (62 and 57 participants, respectively). A vibrating capsule that provided balanced blocks of normal and intense bowel stimulation was inserted by all participants. Interoceptive accuracy, prior belief, interoceptive accuracy, learning rate, gastric evoked potentials (GEPs), and hunger were experimental-session measures.
The researchers found that participants with AN showed lower perceptual accuracy and higher delusion rates compared to healthy comparisons. Previous expectations were stronger with no capsule tremors, greater changes in interoceptive accuracy between blocks, and learning asymmetries in the AN group. No group differences were observed in GEP amplitudes, but they were associated with accuracy and learning in AN. A greater increase in hunger was induced by capsule stimulation in the AN. At follow-up, baseline predictors, response bias, and gastrointestinal upset predicted recurrence (odds ratios, 3.82, 5.37, and 5.73, respectively); severity of eating disorder symptoms was predicted by rate of loss, differences in interoceptive accuracy, and initial predictions (β = 1.05, 5.84, and -2.99, respectively).
“People with anorexia nervosa are not simply ignoring the body’s signals,” senior author Sahib Khalsa, MD, Ph.D., also of Laureate Brain Research Institute, said in a statement. “In contrast, their nervous system may process gut feelings differently, making these signals more difficult to detect, trust and learn from.”
