Phillipou Andrea
Orygen, Melbourne, Australia.
Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
Early Interv Psychiatry. 2025 Jun;19(6):e70054. doi: 10.1111/eip.70054.
Despite first being described in 1888, anorexia nervosa continues to be the deadliest of all psychiatric illnesses. Although efforts have been made to elucidate the aetiological factors involved in the illness, little progress has been made in uncovering what contributes to the development and maintenance of anorexia nervosa. A particular shortcoming of the current literature has been the investigation of interactions between environmental and biological factors. One such interaction which has yet to receive attention in anorexia nervosa is that of sun exposure. Exposure to the sun-including levels of ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and vitamin D-in the pathogenesis of other mental illnesses has long been investigated (with lower levels of vitamin D reportedly involved in the pathogenesis of conditions such as schizophrenia, for example) but is yet to be explored in anorexia nervosa.
The current paper proposes a novel hypothesis for the potential contribution of reduced sun exposure in the aetiology of anorexia nervosa for future investigation, and possible mechanisms for how this relationship may operate.
尽管神经性厌食症早在1888年就被首次描述，但它仍是所有精神疾病中致死率最高的。尽管人们已努力阐明该疾病涉及的病因学因素，但在揭示导致神经性厌食症发展和维持的因素方面进展甚微。当前文献的一个特别不足之处在于对环境因素与生物因素之间相互作用的研究。阳光照射就是在神经性厌食症中尚未受到关注的此类相互作用之一。长期以来，人们一直在研究阳光照射（包括紫外线辐射水平和维生素D水平）在其他精神疾病发病机制中的作用（例如，据报道，维生素D水平较低与精神分裂症等疾病的发病机制有关），但尚未在神经性厌食症中进行探讨。
本文提出了一个新的假设，即减少阳光照射可能在神经性厌食症的病因学中起作用，以供未来研究，并探讨了这种关系可能的作用机制。
