TY - JOUR T1 - BDNF levels in adolescent patients with anorexia nervosa increase continuously to supranormal levels 2.5 years after first hospitalization JF - Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience JO - JPN SP - E568 LP - E578 DO - 10.1503/jpn.210049 VL - 46 IS - 5 AU - Britta Borsdorf AU - Brigitte Dahmen AU - Katharina Buehren AU - Astrid Dempfle AU - Karin Egberts AU - Stefan Ehrlich AU - Christian Fleischhaker AU - Kerstin Konrad AU - Reinhild Schwarte AU - Nina Timmesfeld AU - Christoph Wewetzer AU - Ronald Biemann AU - Wolfgang Scharke AU - Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann AU - Jochen Seitz Y1 - 2021/10/15 UR - http://jpn.ca/content/46/5/E568.abstract N2 - Background: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) influences brain plasticity and feeding behaviour, and it has been linked to anorexia nervosa in numerous studies. Findings in mostly adult patients point to reduced serum BDNF levels in the acute stage of anorexia nervosa and rising levels with weight recovery. However, it is unclear whether this increase leads to normalization or supranormal levels, a difference that is potentially important for the etiology of anorexia nervosa and relapse.Methods: We measured serum BDNF at admission (n = 149), discharge (n = 130), 1-year follow-up (n = 116) and 2.5-year follow-up (n = 76) in adolescent female patients with anorexia nervosa hospitalized for the first time, and in healthy controls (n = 79). We analyzed associations with body mass index, eating disorder psychopathology and comorbidities.Results: Serum BDNF was only nominally lower at admission in patients with anorexia nervosa compared to healthy controls, but it increased continuously and reached supranormal levels at 2.5-year follow-up. BDNF was inversely associated with eating disorder psychopathology at discharge and positively associated with previous weight gain at 1-year follow-up.Limitations: We compensated for attrition and batch effects using statistical measures.Conclusion: In this largest longitudinal study to date, we found only nonsignificant reductions in BDNF in the acute stage of anorexia nervosa, possibly because of a shorter illness duration in adolescent patients. Supranormal levels of BDNF at 2.5-year follow-up could represent a pre-existing trait or a consequence of the illness. Because of the anorexigenic effect of BDNF, it might play an important predisposing role for relapse and should be explored further in studies that test causality. ER -