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Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa Overview

Anorexia nervosa is a mental illness. You have a preoccupation with food and body image to the extreme: You don’t eat. Despite being underweight, you continue to try to lose weight. The syndrome is more common in women than in men, and most often begins between the ages of 13-30 years. The medical complications brought about by this psychiatric disorder can be severe. You may die.



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Anorexia Nervosa

What Is Depression?

Clinical depression is not just grief or sadness. It is an illness that can challenge the person's ability to perform even routine daily activities. At its worst, depression may lead the person to contemplate or commit suicide. Depression represents a burden for the person and his or her family. Sometimes that burden can seem overwhelming.

Several different types of mood disorders exist.

  • Major depression is a change in mood that lasts for weeks or months. It is one of the most severe types of depression. Major depression usually involves a low or irritable mood and/or a loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. It interferes with the person's normal functioning. The person may experience only one episode of depression, but repeated episodes often occur over the person's lifetime.
  • Dysthymia is less severe than major depression but usually goes on for a longer period, often several years. ...

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Read What Your Physician is Reading on eMedicine

Anorexia Nervosa »

Richard Morton first described anorexia nervosa more than 300 years ago, in 1689, as a condition of "a Nervous Consumption" caused by "sadness, and anxious Cares."

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Medical Dictionary