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Nature Against Nurture: Calcification in the Right Thalamus in a Young Man with Anorexia Nervosa and Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

Rupert Conrad ,
Ingo Wegener ,
Franziska Geiser ,
Katrin Imbierowicz  and
Reinhard Liedtke
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Abstract

This report describes the case of a young man with a large calcification in the right thalamus that was first diagnosed at 9 years of age. Case history reveals specific eating rituals and other obsessive-compulsive personality traits during the patient's childhood and adolescence, fulfilling diagnostic criteria of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. After a critical life event the patient develops anorexia nervosa. We suggest that our case and further literature provide evidence for an involvement of specific thalamic structures, such as the dorsomedial nucleus, in the development of anorexia nervosa. Furthermore, the treatment of the patient by a combined psychotherapeutic and pharmacotherapeutic approach is described. We focus on the beneficial effect of the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine, which can induce weight gain by an increase of leptin levels.

Type
Case Report
Information
CNS Spectrums , Volume 13 , Issue 10 , October 2008 , pp. 906 - 910
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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