Anorexia Nervosa
Overview
- Extreme weight loss – hallmark of anorexia
- Restriction of calorie intake below energy requirements (Sometimes defined as 15% below expected weight)
- Intense fear of weight gain
- Often begins with dieting
- Subtypes:
- Restricting: Diet to limit calorie intake
- Binge-eating-purging: Purge to limit calorie intake
- Medical consequences
- Amenorrhea (loss of periods in women)
- Dry skin
- Brittle hair and nails
- Sensitivity to cold temps
- Lanugo
- Cardiovascular problems
- Electrolyte imbalance
- Most deadly mental disorder due to organ damage
Diagnostic Criteria
- Restriction of energy intake relative to requirements, leading to significantly low body weight
- Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat
- Disturbance in the way in which one’s body weight or shape is experienced
Defining Features
- Most show marked disturbance in body image
- Most have comorbid psychological disorders
- 70% are depressed at some point
- Higher than average rates of substance abuse and OCD
- Starving body borrows energy from internal organs, leading to organ damage including cardiac damage > can cause heart attack
Facts and Statistics
- Majority are female and white
- From middle- to upper-middle-class families
- Usually develops around early adolescence
- More chronic and resistant than bulimia
- Lifetime prevalence approximately 1%
- Cross-cultural factors
- Develop in non-Western women after moving to Western countries