Anorexia Nervosa

About Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by restriction of energy intake leading to significantly low body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight or persistent behavior that interferes with weight gain, and a disturbance in how body weight or shape is experienced. DSM-5 describes a restricting type and a binge eating or purging type, and rates severity using body mass index. It has one of the highest mortality rates of any mental disorder, with deaths resulting from medical complications and suicide. Starvation affects nearly every organ system, causing slow heart rate, low blood pressure and heart rhythm problems, loss of menstrual periods and low sex hormones, bone loss and osteoporosis, electrolyte disturbances, anemia, delayed stomach emptying, and fine body hair called lanugo. Refeeding syndrome, a potentially dangerous shift in fluids and electrolytes such as phosphate when nutrition is reintroduced after starvation, is a recognized risk, so nutritional rehabilitation is carried out with medical monitoring. The condition most often begins in adolescence and is diagnosed more often in females. Family based treatment, also called the Maudsley approach, has the strongest evidence for adolescents and involves parents in restoring nutrition, while enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy and other specialized psychotherapies are used for adults. Restoring weight and physical health is a central early goal of treatment.