Bulimia and anorexia wreaking havoc on American teens

Bulimia And Anorexia Plaguing American Teens

Bulimia and anorexia among American teens are a growing problem and health experts warn that the relatively small prevalence of eating disorders compared to other conditions masks the severity of the situation.

A study published online in Archives of General Psychiatry reported that up to 3 percent of teens experience an eating disorder at least once in their life. Less than 0.3 percent has  anorexia nervosa while about 1 percent has bulimia nervosa. But binge-eating is by far the most common with 1.5 percent of teens aged 13 to 18 years of old having the eating disorder.

What is worrying health officials and the researchers is that over 50 percent of the teens also suffer from a range of related mental issues like having anxiety, depression or suicidal thoughts.

The study by the National Institute of Mental Health involved interviews of 10,000 teenagers in the U.S. under the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement.

Girls and boys have roughly the same incidence of anorexia, an obsessive fear of gaining weight. But girls were more likely than boys to engage in binge-eating or develop bulimia, characterized by fasting then binge-eating followed by purging or forced vomiting.

The researchers said social impairment was a key factor in the development of eating disorders. Suicidal tendencies were also detected in almost all the participants regardless of the type of disorder. Past studies among adults have also established a strong link between eating disorders and suicide.

Study leader Sonja A. Swanson of the NIH and her team point out that many of the participants have not sought help to treat their binge-eating, bulimia and anorexia.

Posted by George Daniels on Tuesday March 08 2011, 3:10 AM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0