Anorexia Nervosa

Medical Author:

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

Dr. Roxanne Dryden-Edwards is an adult, child, and adolescent psychiatrist. She is a former Chair of the Committee on Developmental Disabilities for the American Psychiatric Association, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and Medical Director of the National Center for Children and Families in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Medical Editor:

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, Chief Medical Editor

Melissa Conrad Stöppler, MD, is a U.S. board-certified Anatomic Pathologist with subspecialty training in the fields of Experimental and Molecular Pathology. Dr. Stöppler's educational background includes a BA with Highest Distinction from the University of Virginia and an MD from the University of North Carolina. She completed residency training in Anatomic Pathology at Georgetown University followed by subspecialty fellowship training in molecular diagnostics and experimental pathology.

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• Anorexia Nervosa Overview
• Anorexia Nervosa Causes
• Anorexia Nervosa Symptoms and Signs
• When to Seek Medical Care
• Diagnosis of Anorexia Nervosa
• Anorexia Nervosa Treatment
• Self-Care at Home
• Medical Treatment
• Follow-up
• Prognosis of Anorexia Nervosa
• Synonyms and Keywords
• Authors and Editors
• Read more on Anorexia Nervosa from Healthwise

Anorexia Nervosa Overview

Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness. People with this condition have a preoccupation with food and body image to the extreme: They don't eat or eat far too little to maintain health. Despite being underweight, they continue to try to lose weight. While the syndrome is more common in women than in men, it is now understood to affect more men than previously thought. Statistics indicate that anorexia most often begins between 13-30 years of age. The numbers of children and adolescents with eating disorders has steadily increased in the United States since the 1950s. The long-term effects and medical complications brought about by this psychiatric disorder can be severe and even fatal.

Bulimia nervosa is another eating disorder that involves a preoccupation with food and body image. However, characteristics of people with bulimia tend to be that they are of normal weight, binge eat within any two-hour period, and have trouble controlling the urge to binge. They then try to compensate for (undo) the binge in an unhealthy way, by practices such as self-induced vomiting, misuse of medications, fasting, or exercising excessively.

As opposed to anorexia, binge eating disorder involves recurring episodes of eating unusually large amounts of food, along with a sense of feeling out of control at least weekly over three or more months. It also involves strong feelings of embarrassment and guilt. Binge eating disorder is much less common than pure overeating and is usually associated with many more physical and mental health effects.