Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder with symptoms such as refusal to maintain a normal weight for age and height, excessive fear of gaining weight, disturbance in body image, and cessation of menstruation. An intense fear of gaining weight is at the root of anorexia nervosa, accompanied by a refusal to even maintain a low weight.
What Are the Symptoms of Anorexia Nervosa?
Anorexia Nervosa causes the person to restrict their energy intake according to their needs and to have a significantly lower body weight in terms of physical health. These people are very afraid of gaining weight, and despite their low body weight, they limit, exclude or engage in compensatory behaviors. There is a disorder in how the person perceives his/her body weight or body shape, the individual places an undue importance on body weight and shape while evaluating himself, and he never realizes the importance of low body weight at that time.
Restrictive Type:
This subtype describes appearances in which body weight is lost by dieting more, eating almost no food, and/or exercising excessively.
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Binge Eater/Putting Type:
There have been recurrent episodes of binge eating or purging (eg, self-induced vomiting or abuse of laxatives, diuretics, or enemas) in the past three months (DSM-V).
Anorexia nervosa is among the psychiatric disorders with the highest mortality rate. When patients with this disorder die, it is usually due to medical complications and suicide. These people who are undernourished cannot cope with low temperatures, often feel tired, weak, light-headed, and pass out due to chronic low blood pressure. Thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency may occur; this is one of the causes of depression and cognitive changes in some of the underweight anorexia patients. While many of these problems improve with weight regain, anorexia nervosa increases the risk of osteoporosis later in life. Not eating a healthy diet in early adulthood causes bones to lose their flexibility and become more fragile throughout life. Symptoms such as decreased bone density, dryness and flaking of the skin, constipation, hair loss, slowing of thyroid function and decrease in blood pressure are among other physical symptoms.
What is the Treatment for Anorexia Nervosa?
Since anorexia nervosa is the most severe form of eating disorders, it is known to have the highest mortality rate among all psychiatric disorders. Therefore, an early, intensive and multidisciplinary treatment approach is very important in the treatment of the disease. All studies show that family therapy, including other family members, is the most effective and long-term benefit in the disease. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to change behaviors and maladaptive thinking patterns when family therapy is not appropriate, has proven to be an effective method in the treatment of anorexia nervosa. Treatment focuses specifically on changing distorted beliefs about weight and food, as well as distorted thoughts about the self that may contribute to illness (for example, “If I don’t lose weight, people will reject me”). It is recommended to add pharmacological treatment in cases where there is significant deterioration in body image, limited eating or food refusal and agitation.
