This report summarizes the latest results of the survey on Japanese patients on RRT.

Eating disorders occur commonly in females during adolescence or in early adulthood. 1 However, recent studies suggest that eating disorders have been increasing over a wider range of ages, from prepubescence to the menopause. 2 Reflecting this tendency, the incidence of pre-pubescent cases appears to have increased in Japan. 3 The desire for thinness and fear of becoming fat, leading to weight loss or prevention of weight gain are the main clinical features of eating disorders. 4,5 Numerous investigators have suggested that dieting, or restrained eating, is one of the major contributing factors in the development of eating disorders. [6][7][8] In Western countries, it has been well documented that significant concerns about body weight and shape leading to dieting in order to be slim are present in preadolescent as well as in adolescent girls. [9][10][11][12] In Japan, however, there are few studies on eating attitudes and behaviours in pre-adolescent boys and girls. [13][14][15][16] The aim of the present study was to evaluate attitudes towards body weight and shape, desire for thinness, and weight reducing behaviour in a sample of Japanese boys and girls aged fom 10 to 17 years, and the results are compared with those in Western countries. MATERIALS AND METHODSThe subjects were 547 elementary school students (267 boys and 280 girls), 615 junior high school students (315 boys and 300 girls), and 470 senior high Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (1999) AbstractThe attitudes towards body weight and shape, desire for thinness and dieting behaviours were investigated in pre-adolescent and adolescent girls and boys (547 elementary school students, 615 junior high school students, and 470 senior high school students) aged 10-17 years in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, by a self-report questionnaire.Forty-eight per cent of 10-year-old females and 84% of 17-year-old females categorized themselves as 'fat' or 'too fat'. The fear of weight gain and desire for thinness was reported in 35% and 51% of 10-year-old girls, respectively, and increased progressively with ageing to 79% and 87% of 17-year-old girls. In contrast, these were reported by 20-30% of boys in the corresponding age groups. Some practices to be slim were found in 22% of the 10-year-old girls, and increased to 37% among the 17-year-old girls, whereas they were found in around 20% of the boys at each age. The practices to be slim were found in 32% of the girls who were 85-90% of the standard body weight (SBW) and in 14% of the girls less than 85% of the SBW. These results suggest that significant concerns about weight and shape and dieting behaviours are present in young Japanese girls and increase progressively with age. These results are compatible with those in Western society. Key wordsdieting behaviours, pre-adolescent and adolescents, practices to be slim, weight and shape.

Twenty-three unmedicated patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were compared with 12 unmedicated patients with social phobia (SP) and 18 age-matched normal controls (C) using a two-tone auditory oddball event-related potentials (ERP) paradigm. The OCD group showed significantly shorter P300 latencies and shorter N200 latencies for target stimuli than the SP and the C groups. The OCD patients also tended to have greater N200 negativity compared with normal controls. However, there were no significant relationships between these ERP abnormalities in OCD patients and the type or severity of their OCD symptoms. In the mean ERP waveforms, increased N200 negativity for target stimuli, as well as the provocation in the later part of N200 for non-target stimuli, were more commonly observed in the OCD and the SP groups compared with the C group. These results raise the possibility that the shorter N200 and P300 latencies in OCD patients may be an OCD-specific phenomenon that is more closely related to the biological basis for OCD, rather than the characteristics of their OCD symptoms. On the other hand, increased negativity in the N200 region, even for non-target stimuli, may represent the common abnormalities among anxiety disorders.

The capacity to produce most cytokines recovered with the start of weight gain; however, recovery was not correlated with weight gain. The results suggest that the capacity to produce cytokines in these anorexic patients was dependent on something other than the absolute value of body weight, such as the start of refeeding, the neuroendocrine system, or the autonomic nervous system.