Extremely Severe Intractable Binge Eating Disorder: a Case Report With a Successful Alternative Therapy by Traditional Chinese Medicine

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1464272/v1

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Case Report

Extremely Severe Intractable Binge Eating Disorder: a Case Report With a Successful Alternative Therapy by Traditional Chinese Medicine

https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1464272/v1

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posted 21 Mar, 2022

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Background

Binge eating disorder(BED) is the most common eating disorder that mainly affects young women. BED often occurs in the patients with psychiatric disorders and relates to the impairment in psychosocial functioning (home, work, personal life, or social life). Psychotherapy is the first-line treatment for the BED patients. However, only 50% of BED patients can benefit from psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy has less effect than psychotherapy. Here, we report a case with extremely severe BED, whose discomforts were almost disappeared after taking only herbal formula based on Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM) for 2 months.

Case presentation

The case reported was a man aged 73 years who fitted the diagnosis of extremely severe BED. He ate a lot every meal, didn’t stop eating until he felt the extreme discomfort of abdominal distension, and ate more than ten meals every day. Only could an enema every day improve his constipation and the extreme discomfort of abdominal distension. He was transferred to dozens of hospitals because of the disease and had tried a variety of treatments, which had no effect on him. Here, we described in detail his medical history and treatment process. At last, his clinical symptoms were controlled and had no side-effect.

Conclusion

Besides psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, herbal formula based on TCM can be an alternative therapy for severe intractable BED patients.

Level of evidence Level V, case report.

Binge eating disorder

Traditional Chinese Medicine

Herbal formula

Alternative therapy

Case report

BED is the most common eating disorder and psychotherapy is the best-established treatment. However, only 50% BED patients can benefit from the psychotherapy and many BED patients suffer from the disease for life.

What this study adds?

We described a successful treatment for extremely severe intractable BED patient by TCM herbal formula, which indicated that TCM can be used as an alternative option for the intractable BED patients.

Binge eating disorder (BED) is defined as eating an amount of food in a discrete period of time (eg, two hours) that is definitely larger than most people would eat in a similar period of time under similar circumstances. At the same time, patients have a feeling that it is difficult to control their eating behavior [1]. BED is the most common eating disorder that mainly affects young women and often occurs in the patients with psychiatric disorders and relates to the impairment in psychosocial functioning (home, work, personal life, or social life) [2].

Psychotherapy has been shown to reliably produce roughly 50% abstinence rates from binge eating and robust improvements in associated eating disorder pathology and psychological functioning [3, 4]. However, only 50% BED patients can benefit from the psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy has a worse effect than psychotherapy, and the combination treatments did not result in higher effects compared with single-treatment regimens [4, 5]. Here, we report a patient with extremely severe binge eating disorder, whose discomforts were almost disappeared after taking formula herbal based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for 2 months.

The patient, male, 73 years old, was admitted to our department on March 17, 2021 due to an acute unexplained weakness of limbs. He has a history of hepatitis B, schistosomiasis and liver cirrhosis, and has no addiction to tobacco and alcohol. Eventually, we found that his weakness was related to hypokalemia caused by hyperhidrosis. After supplementing potassium, his motor function returned to normal. He was discharged from our hospital on March 23. On that day, the patient supplemented his medical history in detail. He is usually introverted and timid. The COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 lead to his anxiety and insomnia for more than a year. He slept for 2-3 hours a day. After taking estazolam, he could sleep for 4-5 hours. And then, his appetite increased significantly half a year ago. He ate a lot every meal, ate more than ten meals every day, and didn’t stop eating until he felt uncomfortably full. He had never felt ashamed or thought of weight control. At the same time, many other symptoms were accompanied including dry mouth, bitter mouth, chest tightness, hyperhidrosis, severe abdominal distension, constipation. Only could an enema improve his defecation and the extreme discomfort of abdominal distension. He was diagnosed with BED and had tried a variety of treatments including psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. However, the treatments had no effect, so he was transferred to dozens of hospitals because of these painful symptoms above and he felt desperate. He was 171cm high, 80kg weight (70kg half a year ago) and normal in nervous system examination. However, he had slightly dark tongue, tooth marks on the sides of his tongue, tortuous and swelling sublingual veins, yellow and slippery tougue coating. His pulse was deep and weak. On March 18,2021, he was normal in blood routine, thyroid function, liver and kidney function, fasting blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin. There were some abnormal data below, including low blood potassium 2.3mmol/l, high triglyceride (TG) 3.99mmol/l, high LDL-L2.49mmol/ l, high D-2 polymer 2.93mg/l, high fibrin degradation product 6.72mg/l, low antithrombin 3 activity 60.6%. His Hepatitis B surface antigen was positive. His head MRI was normal. His Beck Depression Inventory has 18 points, the Beck Anxiety Inventory has 26 points, and the neuropsychiatric questionnaire (NPI) has 6 points for anxiety scale, 12 points for sleep scale, and 12 points for eating disorders scale. Before he was discharged from the hospital, his blood potassium was 3.87mmol/l (-). At last, the patient was diagnosed with BED according to the DSM-5. Because his BED episodes were more than 13 per week, the level of severity was estimated as extremely severe. His TCM diagnosis was frequent eating, and the syndrome type was that liver Qi depression, spleen Qi deficiency, and mixture together with phlegm, blood stasis and heat. Based on his TCM syndrome type, the herbal formula was as follows: Bupleuri Radix 15g, Fructus Aurantii 15g, Magnolia Officinalis Cotex 15g, Gypsum 30g, Anemarrhena 15g, Chinese Yam 30g, Roasted Licorice 10g, Cinnamon Twig 10g, Leech 10g, Ground Beetle 10g, Peach Seed 10g, Codonopsis 15g, Poria 15g, Pinellia Ternata 15g, Tangerine Peel 15g, Whole Melon 30g, Cistanche 15g, Keel 15g, Oyster 15g, Rhubarb 10g (additional package). The formula was mixed together, boiled for 30 minutes and got 400ml liquid. The patient took 200ml solution once and twice a day, in all 14 days. On April 6, 2021, he returned to my clinic. His constipation was disappeared. His other discomfort, including abdominal distension, hyperhidrosis, dry mouth, bitter mouth and chest tightness, improved significantly. His tongue returned to rosy and his coating returned to thin and white. The number of meals was reduced to 7-8 meals a day. This time, Raw Rhubarb was removed from his last formula because his bowel movement was smooth and continued to take the herbal medication for 30 days. His third visit was on May 6, 2021. At that time, he ate 5-6 meals a day. His abdominal distension was completely disappeared. His symptoms, such as sweating, dry mouth and bitter mouth, were markedly improved. So, Fructus Aurantii and Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex were removed from the second recipe. The recipe was prescribed for 30 days. His fifth visit was on June 5, 2021. At the time, he ate 3-4 meals a day. Each meal had a normal amount of food. Hyperhidrosis, dry mouth, bitter mouth, and bad breath were disappeared, and his weight dropped to 75kg. The tongue almost returned to normal, and the tortuosity degree of the sublingual veins was improved. Blood coagulation and blood lipids returned to normal, and blood routine, liver and kidney functions were normal. His Beck Depression Inventory has 8 points, the Beck Anxiety Inventory has 8 points, and the neuropsychiatric questionnaire (NPI) has 2 points for anxiety scale, 3 points for sleep scale, and 1 points for eating disorders scale. So, Pinellia Ternata, Tangerine Peel, Keel, and Oyster were removed. It was recommended for the patient to take the herbal formula for another two months to consolidate the treatment effect. During the whole period of TCM treatment, besides taking Chinese medicine granules and estazolam regularly, he did not receive any other treatment. August 10, 2021, the patient returned to our clinic and said he couldn’t stop the herbal formula, which led to the recurrence of BED and abnormal mood. Therefore, the patient has been taking the herbal formula until now and hasn’t reported any discomforts for 6 months. He no longer despaired, was very satisfied with TCM treatment and was pleased to continuously take TCM herbal formula.

2.1 Diagnosis of BED

According to the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition), DSM-5" published in 2013, common eating disorders include bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, pica, rumination disorder, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, et al[1]. BED is the most common type of eating disorder. It is often accompanied by obesity, anxiety and depression, and has moderate to severe damage to the daily life of the patients. The lifetime prevalence of the disease is 2.6% in the United States [1] and 2.2% in China [6]. BED should be differentiated from bulimia nervosa, which is manifested by recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors (such as vomiting, enema, fasting, or exercise) to prevent weight gain [2]. The patient reported is usually timid. His anxiety developed one year after the COVID-19 pandemic. His BED symptoms was rather severe. He ate much and more than 10 meals a day, complicated by severe constipation and abdominal discomfort, which could be relieved only by enema. Considering that the patient did not pay too much attention to his weight and shape, nor did he feel shame due to a large amount of eating, the diagnosis of BED was confirmed for him.

2.2 BED Pathogenesis in Modern Medicine and TCM

Modern medicine has found that most patients with BED are accompanied by abnormal mental disorders, which is triggered by negative emotions and manifests as a sense of lack of control over eating, so it is regarded as mental disorders and listed in DSM-5 [1]. Neuroimaging studies have shown that in patients with BED, the medial orbitofrontal cortex is overactive and impulse control-related cortical areas is underactive, and the changes are similar to those observed in substance abuse [7]. Human genetics and animal studies have shown that the neurotransmitter network associated with BED has changed, including the dopaminergic and opioid systems [8]. Although all kinds of modern scientific and technological methods have been exhausted to make comprehensive research on BED [9], we believe that the above research results are only the use of different techniques to describe the abnormal brain change of the BED patient, and there aren’t deep understanding of the real cause of BED. Only eradicating the BED cause, can we completely cure the disease. We think TCM can do it. The case reported is usually timid. After being frightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, he experienced negative emotions such as anxiety and depression for one year, combined by the symptoms including a lot of eating with dry mouth, bad breath, hyperhidrosis, constipation and the signs including teeth marks on the sides of his tongue, and deep and weak pulse, which suggested that the case should be diagnosed as the syndrome of spleen deficiency, liver stagnation and stomach heat in TCM. The other symptoms of the patient including dark tongue, tooth marks tortuous and swelling sublingual veins, yellow and slippery coating showed phlegm and blood stasis were intertwined in his body. Therefore, we decided the treatment principle of invigorating the spleen and soothing the liver, clearing away stomach heat, removing blood stasis and removing phlegm, and we chose Dachaihu Decoction and Didang Decoction (Table 1) as recipe for 4 months to achieve a successful cure for the patient with extremely severe BED. Article 257 of the “Treatise on Cold Pathogenic Diseases” [10] has a TCM pathogenic record of abnormal excessive eating. It considers that stomach heat and blood stasis are the pathogenesis of abnormal excessive eating and suggests the Didang Decoction as the recipe. Fogarty S et al. [11] also found that stomach heat is the main pathogenesis of BED. In all, TCM considered the abnormal excessive eating was mainly the manifestation of stomach heat and getting rid of the stomach heat can improve the symptom. We believe that syndrome of spleen deficiency and liver stagnation in TCM is equivalent to the condition of anxiety and depression of modern medicine, the syndrome of stomach heat are equivalent to the hyperactivity of stomach and the non-infectious febrile inflammatory reaction in modern medicine. We think that phlegm and blood stasis are the pathological product of the syndromes of spleen deficiency, liver stagnation and stomach heat, the pathological products interfere with normal neural activity and cause abnormal mental behavior (such as BED and the other mental disorders). So, TCM has a very clear understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of BED and there was a marked effect on BED. At the same time, TCM significantly alleviated the emotional disorder. However, in terms of the BED understanding in modern medicine, it is limited to the description of abnormal brain manifestations using different advanced techniques and it can’t recognize that long-term negative emotions can cause abnormal pathological products to accumulate in the brain and interfere with the normal function of the brain. The coagulation function of the patient before the TCM therapy suggests a tendency to coagulate, which is equivalent to blood stasis syndrome of TCM. After the TCM therapy, the clinical performance improves and the coagulation function returns to normal, which further shows blood stasis syndrome occurred in the patient with BED. Therefore, we suggest modern medical research on the etiology, pathogenesis and treatment of BED including the other mental disorders maybe should pay attention to the inflammation, blood circulation and abnormal pathological products in brain.

Table 1

The herbal formula of the BED patient from March 23, 2021 to June 5, 2021
Herbal fomula (dose, g)	3/23/2021	4/06/2021	5/06/2021	6/05/2021
Bupleuri Radix	15	15	15	15
Fructus Aurantii	15	15
Magnoliae Officinalis Cortex	15	15
Gypsum	30	30	30	30
Anemarrhena	15	15	15	15
Chinese Yam	30	30	30	30
Roasted Licorice	10	10	10	10
Cinnamon Twig	10	10	10	10
leech	10	10	10	10
Ground Beetle	10	10	10	10
Peach Seed	15	15	15	15
Codonopsis	15	15	15	15
Poria	15	15	15	15
Pinellia Ternata	15	15	15
Tangerine peel	15	15	15
Whole Melon	30	30	30	30
Cistanche	15	15	15	15
Keel	15	15	15
Oyster	15	15	15
Raw rhubarb	10

2.3 Modern and TCM treatment of BED

Modern medicine believes that BED is an abnormal compulsive stereotyped behavior caused by negative emotions, so psychotherapy is the mainstream therapy of BED. When patients are not suitable for psychotherapy, drug therapy can be considered, such as serotonin reuptake inhibition, antiepileptic drugs, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs and shift disorder drugs [12]. However, the effect is not good, so many patients suffer from the disease for life [3], like the case we reported. He had taken all kinds of treatments and was desperate before TCM treatment. In China, for the refractory disease, the doctor and /or patient usually choose the TCM. The symptoms, pathogenesis and herbal formula of abnormal excessive eating had been recorded in the TCM books 2000 years ago. Based on the TCM theory, the patient we reported was considered as spleen deficiency, live stagnation, stomach heat and phlegm, heat and blood stasis congested in the brain, so at first we chose Dachaihu Decoction and Didang Decoction. One week after the TCM medication, stool of the patient was unblocked and he hadn’t used the enema no longer. According to the patient's condition, the composition of the herbal drugs was slightly adjusted, however, the principles remained unchanged. Two months later, the patient's BED and abnormal mood mostly disappeared and the liver and kidney functions were normal. However, his tongue and pulse were always abnormal, which showed his pathological state wasn’t completely eradicated, so he must continuously take the herbal formula. His pathological state of spleen deficiency, live stagnation, stomach heat and phlegm, heat and blood stasis congested may be related to his liver cirrhosis, which can’t be treated.

Strength and limits

The strength of our work lies in the detailed description for the condition, diagnosis and treatment of the extremely severe BED patient, and the analysis of the possible reasons for the successful TCM treatment of the BED. However, the major limitations consist of the lack of ability to generalize and a limited support of scientific literature.

Generally speaking, the success of individual treatment does not indicate the applicability for all patients. At the same time, TCM believes that different BED patient has different pathogenesis, so each patient's herbal formula is likely to be different. Therefore, our specific therapy plan of TCM is not suitable for all BED patient. However, at least, we should know that besides psychotherapy and chemical drugs, TCM herbal formula may be used as an alternative option for the BED patients, especially the intractable patients.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was conducted in accordance with the fundamental principles of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent for publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and any accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.

Availability of data and material

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as because no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.

Competing interests

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Funding

Not applicable.

Authors’ contributions

Yong Zhang conceived of the case report and wrote the manuscript. All authors read, edited, reviewed, and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

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No competing interests reported.

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Version 1

posted 21 Mar, 2022

You are reading this latest preprint version

Extremely Severe Intractable Binge Eating Disorder: a Case Report With a Successful Alternative Therapy by Traditional Chinese Medicine

Status:

Version 1

Abstract

What Is Already Known On This Subject?

What this study adds?

Introduction

Case History

Discussion

2.1 Diagnosis of BED

2.2 BED Pathogenesis in Modern Medicine and TCM

2.3 Modern and TCM treatment of BED

Strength and limits

Conclusions

Declarations

References

Competing Interests

Status:

Version 1