When experimental volunteers or anorexic patients lose weight, their bodies slow down considerably. Heart rate, respiration, and body temperature all decline. Their attention focuses on food to the point that it becomes an obsession. In fact, mealtime becomes the main event of their daily schedule, and they even tend to dream about food. Sometimes they cannot adhere to a restricted diet, resulting in a binge with subsequent guilt feelings.
Starvation also tends to increase feelings of depression, anxiety, irritability, and anger.
Finally, when nutrition is initiated, research subjects and anorexic patients may need thousands of calories to feel satiated. The parallel between anorexia nervosa and these experimental findings with volunteers shows how much starvation alone affects mood and behavior. Consequently, any treatment must begin with gaining weight and changing nutritional patterns, because some of the apparently psychological effects may really be the result of starvation. She also is editor of The Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic . She formerly served as vice president for Education and Research and as dean of the School of Psychiatry.