Background
Patients with gastrointestinal disorders are prone to heightened awareness of dietary intake. When diet‐related thoughts or behaviors are excessive, they may lead to psychological distress, nutritional compromise, and impair medical treatment. Identification of disordered eating behavior and eating disorders is crucial for effective management, but data on their prevalence within this population remain scarce. We conducted a systematic review of the prevalence of disordered eating behavior and eating disorders in adults with gastrointestinal disorders.
Methods
MEDLINE, PubMed, and PsycInfo databases were searched up to June 2021. Studies examining disordered eating in adult patients with a primary gastrointestinal diagnosis were included.
Key Results
A total of 17 studies met the inclusion criteria for the review. The range of gastrointestinal disorders examined included disorders of gut‐brain interaction (DGBI), coeliac disease, and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The methods for examining disordered eating were highly variable. The prevalence of disordered eating ranged from 13–55%. The prevalence was higher in patients with disorders of gut‐brain interaction (DGBI) than in those with organic gastrointestinal disorders. Factors associated with disordered eating included female sex, younger age, gastrointestinal symptom severity, anxiety and depression, and lower quality of life.
Conclusions & Inferences
Disordered eating is highly prevalent in adult patients with gastrointestinal illness, particularly those with DGBI. Understanding whether a patient's primary underlying diagnosis is that of an eating disorder or gastroenterological disorder remains a challenge for clinicians. There is an unmet need to identify at‐risk patients so that psychological intervention can be included in the therapeutic strategy.
A 19-year-old man with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia developed fever, general deterioration and somnolence 3 days after a cycle of cytostatic treatment. He had anaemia (haemoglobin 6.6 g/dl), leukopenia (100/microliters) and thrombocytopenia (7,000/microliters). As an acute septicaemia was suspected he received broad spectrum antibiotic therapy, together with two units of red cell and platelet concentrates. However, his condition worsened rapidly over the next 5 hours (meningism, seizures, fever to 41.1 degrees C, dyspnoea). Another blood count revealed severe haemolysis. Computed tomography of the skull demonstrated multilocular intraparenchymal gas formation. Although the antibiotic treatment was extended the patient died several hours later. Retrospective examination for suspected transfusion mismatch provided no evidence for erythrocyte incompatibility. But there was liberation of T-antigen as sign of a bacterial cause of erythrocyte damage. An anaerobic blood culture grew Clostridium perfringens. This case demonstrates that acute intravascular haemolysis in septicaemia should be considered in the differential diagnosis of transfusion mismatch.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.