Revista de Psicologia e Psicoterapia
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The Role of Genetics, Neurobiology, and Psychosocial Factors in the Development and Treatment of Eating Disorders: A Systematic Review

Sarah Alnaher*, Moayad Alramahi, Abdul Karim Arida

Study background and objective: Eating disorders are severe complications affecting peoples’ eating patterns, with erratic practices like purging behaviors, binge eating, and avoidance of food. These disorders result from different causes, including neurotransmitter imbalance, psychological factors like body-shaming, and genetic inheritance. The present review focuses on genetic, neurobiology and psychological factors to provide an understanding of the development of eating disorders and subsequent treatment.

Methods: The present review was performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) checklist that guided the evidence collection in the review to ascertain high quality. The Participant, Interventions, Comparison, Outcomes, and Studies (PICOS) protocol guided the establishment of potential studies' inclusion criteria. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessments, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) approach was used to assess the certainty of evidence from the individual studies. Two independent reviewers were tasked with study selection, data collection, and study risk of bias assessed. The reviewers used the Cochrane risk of bias tool to assess the risk of bias in the included studies.

Results and discussion: Fifteen studies met the eligibility tests and were included in the review. A review of the evidence obtained from the included studies revealed that neurobiology, genetics and psychological factors influence the development of eating disorders like binge eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, and bulimia nervosa. In genetics, familial integration and heredity revealed the passing of the genes responsible for the development of anorexia nervosa in subsequent generations. Psychological factors and neurobiology affect self-esteem or body shaming and affect the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain, respectively. The treatment interventions aim to restore neurotransmitter levels and confidence after losing confidence and self-body hate due to bad shape.

Conclusions: Genetics, neurobiological factors and psychological status are responsible for the development of eating disorders. Bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and purging behaviors result from unregulated 5-HT depletion, can be inherited or can result from body shaming. The evidence shows that eating disorders can be treated based on the aetiologies and pathophysiology.