Understanding Anorexia Nervosa: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

Every major effort to control body weight, which becomes deficient, interferes with daily life on several levels. In addition, anorexia nervosa is associated with several serious complications, which can be fatal in severe cases. Find out what anorexia is, how it manifests itself and what the treatment is.

What is anorexia?

Anorexia nervosa is a eating disordercharacterized by a false perception of self-image, an obsessive fear of not gaining weight, and extreme control over body shapes, describe Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic. To prevent weight gain, patients with anorexia severely limit their food intake.

Some patients with anorexia also adopt purgative behavior – they exercise excessively, induce vomiting, use laxatives, diuretics, enemas or various slimming products.

It is important to know that anorexic patients do not always show significant weight loss. Basically, they can meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia by having a normal body mass index. In these situations, experts describe a form of “unusual anorexia nervosa”, Christine A. Moore and Brooke R. Bokor present in the work “Anorexia nervosa“.

According to the statistics presented by National Eating Disorders Association, anorexia nervosa has the second highest mortality rate of all mental conditions. Statistics from the US show that 31% of patients with anorexia nervosa have attempted suicide.

Causes and risk factors for anorexia

It is not known exactly what causes this eating disorder. It can be a combination of genetic, psychological and environmental factors. For example, some factors that may be associated with anorexia are:

Today’s beauty standards – the view that only thin people are attractive, pressure in the workplace (such as women’s modelling);

Genetic predisposition towards perfectionism and perseverance, but also obsessive-compulsive personality disorder;

Family medical history of eating disorders;

Restricted diet and diets – these can change the way psychological processes work. Therefore, people who follow a strict diet, without specialist guidance, may find it difficult to return to a normal diet;

Traumatic events – loss of a loved one, victims of bullying, sexual abuse and racism.

Teenagers are more likely to develop anorexia, but the disorder can also appear in adulthood. This condition is more common in women. However, experts believe many male patients remain undiagnosed due to misinformation and stigma, they say. Eating Disorders Victoria.

Signs and symptoms of anorexia

Patients with anorexia may show the following symptoms:

severe restriction of food intake;

They feel overweight or complain about fat deposits in different parts of the body, even if the weight is normal or too low;

they are very interested in the calorie content of food, diet and food;

They fear eating certain foods or food groups;

He criticizes himself;

They have a strong sense of keeping their weight under control – they put too much weight on themselves and measure their abdominal circumference or other parts of the body;

Use only certain types of food, such as those lower in fat and calories;

eat very little food;

Refusing to feel hungry, refusing to eat and often skipping meals;

They make excuses not to eat and lie about what they ate;

They can cook complex dishes for others, but they don’t eat them themselves;

They use laxatives, diuretics, enemas, natural weight loss products, excessive exercise even if they are overweight, induce vomiting (go to the toilet immediately after eating) – in the case of purgative anorexia;

He often examines his body in the mirror, looking for various beauty defects;

Refusing to eat in public;

They cover their bodies with several layers of clothing or dress in loose clothing;

They change their eating habits – they can eat food in a certain order or rearrange it on the plate;

It shows states of irritability, insomnia, social isolation, lack of emotions, low libido and depression;

They have selfish thoughts;

lose weight significantly in a short period of time;

Showing malnutrition or protein-calorie malnutrition – severe weight deficiency, indicated by a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5 kg / m².

Unfortunately, many patients with anorexia deny that they have a problem, which delays the diagnosis and the start of treatment. They seek medical attention only when life-threatening problems arise. If you recognize these symptoms in your case or someone close to you, it is important to seek help from a doctor and a psychologist as soon as possible.

Complications of anorexia

According to the sources mentioned, a patient with anorexia can face a large number of health problems, due to severe nutritional deficiencies:

Dizziness, extreme fatigue and fainting states;

Hydro-electrolytic imbalance (abnormal level of sodium, chlorine, potassium) – in the severe stage, sudden death can occur;

Anemia;

Heart disorders – arrhythmias (fast or slow heart rate), mitral valve prolapse, heart failure;

Hypotension;

Digestive problems – constipation, diarrhea, bloating, nausea, gastroparesis;

Osteoporosis;

concentration and learning difficulties;

Amenorrhea in women – lack of periods;

Decreased testosterone in men;

Muscle weakness, muscle mass loss;

treatment of difficult wounds;

Feeling cold continuously;

dry skin and other skin conditions;

Brittle nails and hair loss;

frequent diseases;

Difficulty breathing;

Kidney diseases;

disorders of growth and development in adolescents;

Peripheral neuropathy;

Cerebral atrophy;

during pregnancy – obstetric and postpartum problems;

Feeding syndrome – if they quickly return to a normal diet after a period of starvation. The syndrome is associated with a risk of death.

Also, in addition to affecting the physical condition, anorexia is also associated with various psychological problems, such as:

Personality problems;

anxiety and depression;

abuse of alcohol and other substances;

Suicide attempt.

Treatment of anorexia

Establishing the diagnosis and the current problems is done through clinical examination, psychological assessment, comprehensive laboratory tests and imaging.

Patients often require hospitalization to eat again under specialist supervision. In severe cases, the doctor may recommend to start enteral nutrition (with a nasogastric tube).

Clinical cases of anorexia are treated multidisciplinary, including doctors, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, certified dietitians. Treatment includes psycho-behavioral therapy, nutritional counseling to implement a proper eating plan, medication (such as antidepressants or antipsychotics, if other mental health disorders or other problems are present), Clinic Mayo reports.

Some of the essential goals are improving the relationship with food, treating nutritional deficiencies and protein-calorie malnutrition. The increase in food consumption is done gradually, to prevent the onset of feeding syndrome.

Thus, anorexia nervosa is an eating behavior disorder that can be associated with a variety of serious life-threatening problems. You can prevent such disorders by adopting healthy eating habits and assimilating proper nutritional information under the guidance of a nutritionist-dietitian.