A new study that followed girls with anorexia from age 14 to 30 years old found that 67% experienced major depression, and 73% suffered from anxiety disorders.
- A team of researchers from Goteborg Sweden recruited 51 girls with anorexia when they were 14 years old.
- The girls were not as severely ill as those who have to be hospitalized.
- All the girls were treated within their communities and none died in the course of the study.
The Swedish study was the first to consider autism spectrum and anorexia, and the main finding was that girls with both autism and anorexia have poorer outcomes. Poorer outcomes were also linked to having a younger age of onset of anorexia, a lower weight (BMI) and/or obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
By age 30, 12% still had eating disorders, 39% met criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder, and 25% were unemployed due to a psychiatric disorder.
The study appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Labels: girls, anxiety disorders, depression
Posted By: Eating Disorders Blog