Changes in body composition during refeeding of patients with anorexia nervosa

Body composition changes in patients with anorexia nervosa after complete weight recovery

“…Similarly, during the treatment of malnourished children weight gain was more rapid in the early recovery, with a tendency to lay down more fat in following phases (Standard et al, 1959). As far as refed anorectic patients are concerned, cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have given fairly contradictory results, indicating that FM represents, on average, 21 -77% of the weight regained (Russel & Mezey, 1962;Forbes et al, 1984;Pirke et al, 1986;Mitchell & Truswell, 1987;Vaisman et al, 1988;Krahn et al, 1993;Waller et al, 1996;Orphanidou et al, 1997;Polito et al, 1998;Probst et al, 2001). This discrepancy could be explained by differences in baseline patients' general characteristics, measurement meth- Body composition changes in anorexia L Scalfi et al ods, refeeding programmes, etc.…”

“…With respect to refed patients, changes in FFM and FM (Orphanidou et al, 1997;Probst et al, 2001), body potassium (Pirke et al, 1986), total body water and its intracellular=extracellular distribution (Vaisman et al, 1988), as well as in bioimpedance analysis (Polito et al, 1998;Scalfi et al, 1999), have been observed after weight recovery. The studies available in the literature also indicate that FM represents 21 -77% of the weight gained (Russell & Mezey, 1962;Forbes et al, 1984;Pirke et al, 1986;Mitchell & Truswell, 1987;Vaisman et al, 1988;Krahn et al, 1993;Waller et al, 1996;Orphanidou et al, 1997;Polito et al, 1998;Probst et al, 2001;Grinspoon et al, 2001), while the number of calories needed to put down body mass seems to increase during refeeding (Salisbury et al, 1995). Nevertheless, despite the widespread use of anthropometric techniques for the assessment of nutritional status, only a few studies have so far examined the changes in skinfolds and circumferences which occur during weight recovery (Forbes et al, 1984;Nuñez et al, 1994;Orphanidou et al, 1997;Polito et al, 1998;Probst et al, 2001).…”

Body composition changes in anorexia nervosa

“…It functions as a structural component, a medium for chemical reactions and a vehicle for interchange between the body cells and organs. It has been suggested that body water as percent of body weight increases in anorexia (Dempsey et al, 1984;Scal® et al, 1997), and it has been found to be irregularly distributed with expansion of the extracellular compartment at the expense of the intracellular (Veisman et al, 1988;Scal® et al, 1993). To estimate total body water we have used the Kushner's equation (1992) that has been validated also in anorexic patients (Scal® et al, 1997).…”

Body composition in early onset eating disorders

“…Premenarcheal AN, although rare, is well recognised (Gowers et al, 1991;Jacobs & Isaacs, 1986;Bryant-Waugh, 2000). The majority of studies to date looking at body composition in eating disorders have been on postmenarcheal adolescents or adult patients (Vaisman et al, 1988;Mazess et al, 1990;Orphanidou et al, 1997;Trocki & Shepherd, 2000). The physical impact of malnutrition in pre-and peri-pubertal children with eating disorders has been little investigated, the largest series being a retrospective study of 20 adults whose AN was of premenarcheal onset (Russell, 1985).…”

“…The limitations of BMI alone become apparent, for example, when trying to predict resumption of menses (Sobanski et al, 1997;Falk & Halmi, 1982). Studies in adults, using more complex body composition models than BMI, have attempted to tease out the relationship between FM and normal endocrine function (Birmingham et al, 1996;Mazess et al, 1990;Probst et al, 1996;Vaisman et al, 1988;Zamboni et al, 1997). However, recent evidence suggests that FFM may be as or more important than fatness in the development of osteoporosis in AN (Grinspoon et al, 1999).…”