ABSTRACT
Psychological and physical stress in animals and humans has been shown to alter feeding behavior. Increased grooming is recognized to occur under certain stressful situations in the wild and has been considered a displacement behavior. Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF) continued to decrease feeding and increase grooming in hypophysectomized animals, suggesting that its effect on the behaviors was independent of its ability to release adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) and/or beta-endorphin. In 1982, Britton et al. and J. E. Morley and A. S. Levine simultaneously reported that CRF, when administered centrally, is a potent anorectic agent. CRF produces the release of corticosterone from the adrenal cortex secondary to the release of ACTH from the pituitary and also activates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine. CRF administered into the paraventricular nucleus also blocked norepinephrine-induced feeding. In view of the potent anorectic effects of CRF, it seemed reasonable to postulate that it plays a role in the pathophysiology of anorexia nervosa.
