Childhood anxiety, increased sensitivity to punishment, obsessive-compulsive and autistic traits and increased sensitivity to fear learning
are some of the vulnerability factors which predispose to the onset of
AN (see Fig. 1). Once the illness develops, core symptoms, such as restriction, weight loss and weight-, shape- and food-related preoccupations appear. With the illness progression, neuroprogressive
secondary changes such as rigid eating habits; cognitive emotional
and social difficulties and abnormalities in brain structure and function
develop and in turn reinforce the illness. It is suggested that new treatment approaches could be used to target the neuroprogressive changes
which occur in AN.