title: Reduction of anxiety after restricted feeding in the rat: implication for eating disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Eating-disorder patients exhibit not only abnormal eating attitudes but also pathologic anxiety-like behaviors. The specific nature of the relationship between dieting and anxiety-like behavior is unknown.
  
  
  METHODS
  To investigate the adaptational changes that resulted from chronic restricted scheduled feeding (2-hour access per day for 2 weeks) and subsequent free refeeding, longitudinal changes in the microstructure of feeding behavior were studied in male rats. To study the relationship between restricted feeding and anxiety-like behavior, separate rats were tested in the elevated plus-maze under the following conditions: 1) free feeding; 2) acute food restriction (2-hour access for 1 day); 3) chronic food restriction (for 10 days); or 4) postrecovery (after 10 days of free feeding subsequent to chronic food restriction).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The effects of chronic food restriction on meal structure diminished within a few days after refeeding. Decreased anxiety-like behavior was seen during acute and chronic food restriction and did not reflect nonspecific behavioral activation. Anxiolytic-like effects persisted after 10 days of refeeding.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Chronic food restriction produced reductions in anxiety-like behavior that persisted beyond the normalization of food intake patterns. The findings might have etiologic and pathophysiologic relevance for the restrained eating pattern in eating-disorder patients with comorbid anxious symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, USA.
authors.forename: Koki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Eric P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Zorrilla
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tabarin
authors.forename: Glenn R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Valdez
authors.forename: Sinichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iwasaki
authors.forename: Nobuo
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kiriike
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Koob
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D001835:Body Weight; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004326:Drinking; D004327:Drinking Behavior; D004435:Eating; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D005502:Food; D005508:Food Deprivation; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar