Nahrungsvermeidung versus Nahrungsaversion bei restriktiven Essstörungen.

The terms food avoidance and food aversion are often used interchangeably in the eating disorders (EDs) literature. However, they represent two different (but closely related) constructs that are the result of different processes. In patients suffering from anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and avoidant / restrictive food intake disorder, food avoidance / restriction is usually assumed to be motivated by fear / anxiety (e. g., “intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat” or “being afraid to eat after a frightening episode of choking”). In contrast, studies show that taste aversion
often leads to food avoidance. Unlike fear-motivated avoidance in which the flavour of food becomes a signal for danger, avoidance produced by taste aversions involves a reduction in the amount consumed due to a hedonic downshift. Here the attractiveness of the flavour changes by its association with a nauseogenic event. It is noteworthy that both sources of food avoidance exhibit different behavioural characteristics, contents of learning, and activate different brain regions and neuromodulators. This is especially important for the understanding and treatment of the EDs and their most serious behavioural manifestation: the life-threatening food refusal. Finally, the clinical implications of such a distinction and promising future research directions are discussed.