Sham Feeding in Rats Translates into Modified Sham Feeding in Women with Bulimia Nervosa and Purging

Bulimia nervosa (BN) is a psychiatric illness characterized by repeated binge eating and purging episodes that can be associated with significant psychosocial impairment and chronicity. Mechanisms maintaining this maladaptive set of behaviors remain poorly understood, but several lines of evidence support the presence of enhanced responsiveness to orosensory cues in people with BN. Sham feeding (SF) in the rat is an animal model of binge eating and purging that has been used extensively for the investigation of the orosensory excitatory controls of eating. We translated SF in the rat into modified sham feeding (MSF) in humans to investigate the orosensory excitatory control of eating in patients with BN and purging. BN women sham fed significantly more sweet and unsweetened solutions than control subjects or women with anorexia nervosa. This result validates the utility of the SF rat as an animal model of BN and purging and establishes MSF as a heuristic technique for the analysis of the orosensory controls of ingestion in women with BN and purging.