|
Eating disorders are serious disturbances in eating behavior, such as a severe decrease in food intake.300 People with eating disorders often have an excessive concern with body appearance or shape. Severe under-eating causes malnutrition, which can have serious physical consequences, including heart and kidney failure. People can die from heart and kidney failure as a result of malnutrition.
Eating disorders are more common in women than men: 85–95% of patients are women.
Eating disorders often coexist with other psychiatric illnesses, such as depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and personality disorders.301
Anorexia nervosa is a disease of severe under-eating. It is a common disease: it has been estimated that 0.3% of young women have anorexia nervosa.302 Symptoms of anorexia include:303
• Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height (<85% of normal)
• Failure to make expected weight gain during a period of growth (leading to body weight <85% of normal)
• Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat even though underweight
• Seeing oneself as fat when one is not fat, or undue influence of body weight or shape on self-evaluation
• Denial of the seriousness of the current very low body weight
• Failure to menstruate
People with anorexia often see themselves as being fat even though they are dangerously underweight.
The course of anorexia varies. Some people recover after a single episode, others alternate between periods of recovery and relapse of the disease, and others have a chronic course of decline. The annual death rate from anorexia is 0.6% per year.304,305 The most common causes of death in people with anorexia are suicide and complications of alcoholism.306,307
|
