Washington, Mar 8 : A new US study has found that eating disorders are prevalent in the adolescent population and are associated with other psychiatric disorders, role impairment, and suicidality.
Sonja A. Swanson, of the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, and colleagues examined eating disorders with data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally representative sample of U. S. adolescents.
The objectives of the study included determining the lifetime and 12-month prevalences of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge-eating disorder (BED) and subthreshold eating disorders; examining their sociodemographic and clinical correlates and patterns of comorbidity with other mental disorders; and to describe the magnitude of role impairment, suicidal behavior, and service use associated with these disorders.
Sufficient information was available to define subthreshold AN (SAN) and subthreshold BED (SBED) among those youths who did not meet criteria for AN, BN, or BED. The sample included face-to-face interviews with 10,123 adolescents ages 13 to 18 years.
The researchers found that lifetime prevalence rates of AN, BN, BED, SAN, and SBED were 0.3 percent, 0.9 percent, 1.6 percent, 0.8 percent, and 2.5 percent, respectively; and the 12-month prevalence rates of AN, BN, BED, and SBED were 0.2 percent, 0.6 percent, 0.9 percent, and 1.1 percent, respectively.
Regarding lifetime prevalence estimates, there were no sex differences in the prevalence of AN or SBED, whereas BN, BED, and SAN were more prevalent in girls.
The majority of respondents with an eating disorder met criteria for at least 1 other lifetime DSM-IV disorder (classification of mental disorders) assessed in this study across the lifetime, with 55.2 percent, 88.0 percent, 83.5 percent,
79.8 percent, and 70.1 percent of adolescents with AN, BN, BED, SAN, and SBED, respectively, endorsing 1 or more co-existing psychiatric disorders.
Among adolescents with 12-month AN, BN, BED, and SBED, 97.1 percent, 78.0 percent, 62.6 percent, and 34.6 percent, respectively, reported impairment in the past 12 months; 24.2 percent, 10.7 percent, 8.7 percent, and 2.8 percent, respectively, reported severe impairment. Eating disorders were most strongly associated with social impairment.
Nearly all of those with AN (88.9 percent) reported social impairment, and 19.6 percent reported severe social impairment associated with their eating disorder. Lifetime suicidality was associated with all subtypes of eating disorders.
The findings have been published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. (ANI)
