Incidence and outcomes of bulimia nervosa: a nationwide population-based study

Abstract

Few women with bulimia nervosa are recognized in health-care settings. Symptoms of bulimia are relatively long-standing, and recovery is gradual. Many clinically recovered women experience residual psychological symptoms after attaining abstinence from bingeing and purging.

Increased emergency department use by adolescents and young adults with eating disorders

“…7 Despite this increased use of resources, the majority of eating disorders go undiagnosed for years. [8][9][10] Although fewer studies of healthcare utilization in patients with eating disorders have included acute care settings such as urgent care and emergency departments (EDs), increased use of these services in patients with eating disorder when compared with controls has also been noted. 5,9,11 Given that the likelihood of successful treatment of eating disorders is inversely related to the duration of untreated illness, early detection is vital.…”

An Evolutionary Genetic Perspective of Eating Disorders

“…BN is similarly more prevalent in females, with 0.88-4.6% of females suffering from the disease compared to 0.10-1.5% of males [1,10,11,13,15,16,22,23]. There is greater variability in the estimates of peak incidence of BN, which in part could be because of the use of different age cut-offs used in studies as well as the relatively recent changes in diagnostic criteria.…”

“…There is greater variability in the estimates of peak incidence of BN, which in part could be because of the use of different age cut-offs used in studies as well as the relatively recent changes in diagnostic criteria. The peak incidence is estimated to be as low as 10-20 years of age, or as high as 25-29 years [11,12,14,16,22,24]. The lifetime prevalence of BED is higher in females (2.5-3.5%) compared to males (1.5-2.0%) [1,[24][25][26][27].…”

Medical complications of bulimia nervosa and their treatments

“…This is especially important because symptoms of bulimia nervosa are relatively longstanding and the 5-year recovery rate is only in the 50% range. 3 Thus, the medical complications are of relevance for many years during the course of treatment. Although the emaciated state of the patient with anorexia nervosa immediately suggests that diagnosis, patients with bulimia nervosa may appear to be healthy and can more easily hide their disorder.…”