After adolescence, anorexia is not always cured. At 50, many women relapse after a painful event. Specific support is required.
Looking at yourself every morning in the mirror, weighing yourself after each meal, in short having an obsession with the perfect body, is not the prerogative of teenage girls. It seems that wisdom does not necessarily come with age. Indeed, according to an American study published in the International Journal of eating disorders, eating disorders also claim victims in women over 50. In this age group, 8% of women admit to inflicting food purges and 3% admit having had compulsive eating attacks during the past month. And that can go well beyond 50 years. In this study, women over 75 continued to diet drastically.
Admittedly, the population sample is not representative of the population since a quarter of the women questioned were obese and a third were overweight. But, these figures do reflect a reality. In fact, “remission in eating disorders exists but it is far from the rule,” says Professor Philippe Gorwood, psychiatrist at Sainte-Anne (Paris). A woman over 50 who comes to see for anorexia nervosa, in 9 nine out of 10 cases, the disorders appeared years before. “
Listen to it Dr Thierry Vincent, psychiatrist in Grenoble, specialist in anorexia: “In 30% of cases, the eating disorder becomes chronic.”
These mature women can therefore be former anorexics, suffering from sequelae. “In fact, on the occasion of a painful personal event such as a divorce, it is not uncommon to see these women decompensate, and therefore see the disturbances arise again,” explains Thierry Vincent. His colleague from Lyon, Dr Edouard Carrier, also finds it difficult to believe that a woman develops anorexia nervosa at the age of 50. According to him, this disorder often hides a very real depression. And then antidepressants are the only solution.
Other situations can put you wrongly on the trail of anorexia nervosa. Some people in their forties, for example, think that food is the cause of all their ailments, cholesterol, hypertension, etc. They therefore take excessive measures to protect themselves. Last case: at these ages, “certain diseases, such as breast cancer, cause suffering, and they can be accompanied by a loss of appetite,” says Philippe Gorwood. It is indeed anorexia, but not mental ”.
Careful care at age 50
Anorexia and bulimia therefore generally take root in adolescence. On the other hand, binge eating – which nevertheless affects 3% of the population – can appear later. This excessive and compulsive consumption of food that is not accompanied by vomiting is not uncommon in obese people.
Once the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa is made, it remains to be seen whether a 50-year-old woman is treated like a 17-year-old girl. First certainty: if the relationship with food has been complicated for decades, the management may be particularly delicate. “Especially since anorexics want to control everything. Giving up their defense system therefore requires an enormous amount of work on oneself, ”explains Edouard Carrier. One of the most commonly used therapies is couples therapy, because genetic vulnerability is not everything. The environment plays a major role.
Listen to it Prof. Philippe Gorwood, psychiatrist in Sainte-Anne: “The anorexic person establishes a totally pathological system around him”.
On the medication side, antidepressants give good results in bulimia and binge eating. On the other hand, for anorexia nervosa, the later the disorders appear, the worse the prognosis. The consequences of eating disorders are indeed often more serious at 50 than at 20. The heart, intestines and even muscles suffer, especially when these women force themselves to exercise excessively.
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