The Skinny on Anorexia

What Is Anorexia? It's got a fancy Latin name: anorexia nervosa, "nervous want of appetite." It's a killer. One in 10 cases ends in death. People with anorexia starve themselves by eating far too little food. Eventually they become dangerously thin -- yet they still see themselves as fat. People with this eating disorder may become so undernourished that they have to be hospitalized. Even then they often deny that anything is wrong with them. Anorexia …

…instability, dehydration or electrolyte disturbances) even in the absence of significant weight loss, arrested growth and development, failure of out-patient treatment, acute food refusal, uncontrollable bingeing, vomiting or purging, family dysfunction that prevents effective treatment, and acute medical or psychiatric emergencies (Polivy, 2002). The goals of treatment are the same in a medical or psychiatric in-patient unit, a day program or outpatient setting: to help the adolescent achieve and maintain both physical and psychological health (Keel, 2002).