Anorexia nervosa is often complicated by devastating medical problems and may result in death. Although studies suggest a multifactorial cause for the disorder, treatment trials have yet to provide clinical guidance about how best to approach anorexia nervosa. However, recent studies have found that for adolescents who have short-duration anorexia nervosa, a specific form of family-based treatm...

Recent research has suggested that normal adolescent processes are important in understanding psychosis, and that young adult individuals with psychosis are often struggling to develop an individual and autonomous self (the "fundamental task" of adolescence). The current paper explores the utility of considering normative adolescent developmental processes in understanding anorexia nervosa. Dat...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to compare heart abnormalities in young women with anorexia nervosa and in a control group of the same age and sex. Patients and method. We report a matched case-control study of 30 adolescents with anorexia nervosa and 30 healthy women of the same age with normal weight. An electrocardiogram and echocardiogram were done. Heart paramet...

BACKGROUND The long-term outcome of anorexia nervosa is insufficiently researched. AIMS To study prospectively the long-term outcome and prognostic factors in a representative sample of people with teenage-onset anorexia nervosa. METHOD Fifty-one people with anorexia nervosa, recruited by community screening and with a mean age at onset of 14 years were compared with 51 matched comparison i...

BACKGROUND Previous research in patients with anorexia nervosa showed heightened brain response during a taste reward conditioning task and heightened sensitivity to rewarding and punishing stimuli. Here we tested the hypothesis that individuals recovered from anorexia nervosa would also experience greater brain activation during this task as well as higher sensitivity to salient stimuli than c...

Anorexia nervosa is a rare psychiatric disorder and epidemiological studies have shown a female to male ratio of 10:1, suggesting it is a disorder predominantly seen among females. The prevalence of anorexia nervosa comorbid with other psychiatric disorders has been reported to be quite high. Whereas depression and anxiety disorders are the most common comorbid diagnoses in anorexic patients, t...

OBJECTIVE Lifetime rates of full and partial anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa were determined in first-degree relatives of diagnostically pure proband groups and relatives of matched, never-ill comparison subjects. METHOD Rates of each eating disorder were obtained for 1,831 relatives of 504 probands on the basis of personal structured clinical interviews and family history. Best-estimate...

This article explores the relationship between eating disorders and reading behaviors, arguing that there is a meaningful difference in a minority of readers' approach to and understanding of anorexia life-writing, and of literary texts more broadly. To illuminate this distinction, this article begins by considering the reported deleterious influence of Marya Hornbacher's anorexia memoir, Waste...

In a recent study, Wolfe and others interviewed 103 parents of children who had died from cancer.[1] Approximately 80% of these children suffered anorexia, or loss of appetite. Over 35% of parents identified anorexia as a cause of distress for their child when a physician failed to recognize it. Wolfe and others concluded,"greater attention to symptom control....might ease...suffering." In adul...

The purpose of this study was to assess characteristics of individuals who died from anorexia nervosa by assessing the frequency with which anorexia nervosa is listed as a causal factor related to the death of individuals in the USA. Data from over 10 million death records (all National Center for Health Statistic registered deaths in the USA for 1986-90) were examined for mention of anorexia n...