You can be anorexic without necessarily having only the skin on the bones. This eating disorder, which mostly affects women and most often appears between 14 and 17 years old, does not always manifest itself in a state of thinness, contrary to what one might think. This is essentially what experts from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia’s largest research center specializing in childhood, are saying in collaboration with the University of Melbourne.
Researchers note a five-fold increase in the number of adolescent girls admitted to the center for anorexia. Main finding: these patients present all the clinical criteria for this eating disorder except forBMI which does not indicate an underweight but a normal build.
To draw this conclusion, the Australian specialists observed the patients admitted to the establishment for six years.
In the end, it is not the corpulence but more the evolution of weight loss, and in particular too rapid weight loss that should alert, summarizes the study. Teenagersyour who lose a lot of pounds should be evaluated and taken care of by doctors.
An overweight teen can become anorexic
the diagnosis of anorexia nervosais posed when a person suffers from several symptoms: an abnormal diet (restriction, avoidance of certain foods, refusal to eat, bulimic phases), induced vomiting and / or taking laxatives, a weight problem (BMI less than 17.5 kg / m2), a truncated and distorted perception of oneself and one’s body or a refusal to recognize one’s thinness, a lack of self-esteem (feeling of having control over one’s body, fear of gaining weight) , and no period for at least 3 months.
Eating disorders can occur at any age and anorexia can even affect overweight adolescents, the study says. “Health professionals should be alerted to patients who lose weight quickly even if their BMI is normal,” she concludes.