Table of contents
- Anorexia nervosa
- Prevealance
- Symptoms
- Physical symptoms
- Physiological symptoms
- Emotional and behavioural symptoms
- Psychological symptoms
- Causes and risk factors for anorexia nervosa
- Environmental factors
- Genetic factors
- Biological factors
- Anorexia Risk Factors
- Treatment
- Psychiatric therapy
- Heath complications
- Sources
Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder and a serious mental health condition accompanied by a loss of appetite due to the fear of becoming obese. Anorexic people intentionally try to keep their body weight low by restricting food intake and exercising excessively due to the fear of becoming obese. Even though their body weight drops to a dangerous level. The patient often has a distorted image of their body; emotional challenges; and constant starvation may lead to other problems and diseases like osteoporosis, low blood pressure, cessation of menstruation, constipation, and others.
Prevealance
Both sexes can be affected by anorexia nervosa. However, such feelings largely affect girls just after the onset of puberty, between the ages of 12 to 21 years. These girls are often immature psychologically and unable to cope with the challenges of puberty and their emerging sexuality. The loss of feminine characteristics enables the girls to retreat into a child-like state in which they feel safe.
Females outnumber males by a factor of ten. Though it is more common in females, its effects are more life-threatening in males as compared to females due to the mistaken belief that men are not affected by anorexia.
It also more often affects models, as the fashion industry encourages the behaviour of restricting food or skipping meals, which may lead to severe emotional and mental health issues.
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Symptoms
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder characterised by the starvation of the body, which may lead to a significant loss in body weight and body mass. Food deprivation and malnutrition may lead to serious Physical, emotional, psychological, and physiological symptoms include the following:
- Physical symptoms
- Lose of a normal body mass index for one's age and height.
- The cessation of the menstrual cycle occurs due to prolonged weight loss.
- Malnutrition may lead to dry hair and skin as well as hair thinning, swollen hands and feet, discoloration of the skin, particularly the feet, and infertility.
- Loss of muscle mass at an extreme level causes fatigue and muscle pain.
- Physiological symptoms
Continuous loss in body mass, weight loss, and malnutrition may also affect body function. The physiological symptoms include:
- Constant starvation, which may cause low blood pressure.
- Bloating or an upset stomach could occur. Abdominal distension.
- Loss in normal body temperature along with cold hands and feet and intolerance to cold.
- Bad breath and food deprivation may be the effects of ketoacidosis.
- Emotional and behavioural symptoms
Anorexic person can be demonstrated by their emotional and behavioural acts.
- Self-induced vomiting in order to get rid of food
- Anorexics also take drugs or pills and laxatives to flush out the food.
- Exercising excessively even when the body is too weak.
- They isolate themselves from events, family members, and the public.
- They frequently lie about the food they have consumed.
- Always eating selectively
- Avoid eating around other people.
- Self-esteem loss
- Performing food rituals like eating food on their own terms and arranging and cutting it in their own order.
- Psychological symptoms
Food deprivation may lead to severe psychological issues.
- Depression
- Insomnia
- Admire and idealise the thinner body.
- Mood swing
- Self-harming thoughts and acts
- The perception that their body is over-weighted.
- Their ideal body representation is altered.
- Continually checking the mirror and perceiving the flaws.
- Even after extreme hunger, denying to eat and laying of hunger.
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Causes and risk factors for anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa can be caused by several factors. It can be psychological, environmental, or genetic.
- Environmental factors
The environment can influence a person's psychology and behaviour greatly. Early research suggests that eating disorders may be caused by environmental factors such as:
- Criticism in one's life about their body weight, shape, and eating habits.
- Continues pressure to fit into a body or shape from society, culture, relationships, family, or peers.
- Past life trauma and racism.
- A person who has faced bullying about their weight or body shape may develop anorexia.
- An obsessive personality or a sense of perfectionism could be a factor.
- Genetic factors
Genetics could be a possible risk factor for causing anorexia nervosa. Although the exact gene for anorexia has not been discovered, it could be by following:
- Anorexia nervosa can run in families; those who have an eating disorder can be at great risk of getting the disease.
- In a research study, two gene have been discovered ESRRA and HDAC4, can cause eating disorders in an individual and be a risk factor for the disease.
- Biological factors
Biological dysfunctionalities and dysregulations of certain biological functions in the human body can cause disease. For example,
- Brain and hormonal changes during puberty can be associated with anorexia nervosa.
- Dysfunctional of the neuroendocrine hormonal system that signals between the brain and the digestive system and controls hunger.
- Dysregulations of the brain’s neurochemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine disturb biological pathways that regulate the hunger and appetite of an individual.
Anorexia Risk Factors
Prolonged anorexia causes several complications in the body, which may lead to severe health problems and may cause serious health issues and diseases.
- It can cause malnutrition, which may lead to several diseases like gastro-intestinal disease, constipation, heartburn, liver problems, nausea, cyclic vomiting syndrome.
- Kidney problems like distal renal tubular acidosis, in which the kidney is unable to remove acid from the blood.
- Heart problems like heart failure, slow heart beats Anemia, which is caused by the deficiency of RBSs.
- Decrease in bone mass, osteoporosis, calcium deficiency, vitamin K deficiency.
- Hormonal problems reduce the level of oestrogen in females and testosterone in males.
- It also have effects on fertility.
- Muscle weakness, pain, fatigue, and tiredness
- Skin problems like sarcoidosis (patches on the skin), dry skin, and loss of hair.
- It can lead to mental health problems like OCD, depression, anxiety, suicidal attempts, and serious self-injury.
Treatment
Anorexic people's treatment is based on how long the individual is affected by the disease and how much the individual is affected by other complications. Psychiatric therapy is the best way to cure the disease. No other such medication has been found yet to cure the disease. However, antidepressants are given to treat mental health problems like depression.
Psychiatric therapy
Psychiatric therapy is suitable to treat patients. It includes:
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): It is therapy based on weekly sessions for up to 40 weeks (9 to 10 months) done by the practitioner with the aim of helping the person to feel good around food, develop eating habits and new ways of thinking, behaving, and managing stress.
- Maudsley Anorexia Nervosa Treatment for Adults (MANTRA): It is a therapeutic treatment for adults. It includes 20 sessions; the first 10 are regular on a weekly basis; the other 10 are flexible based on the available time you have. The aim is to realise the individual's causes of anorexia and change their behaviour patterns towards food. It also includes family for cure and fast recovery.
- Specialist Supportive Clinical Management (SSCM): It includes 20 sessions conducted by the practitioner with the main aim of exploring the causes of the problems that were the cause of the disease. To know the importance of nutrition and how it helps in gaining weight It also focuses on helping the patients come back to a normal routine, whether at work, school, etc.
Heath complications
The health issues can be treated by medication and hospitalisation of the anorexic person.
Sources
Treasure, J. (2013). Anorexia nervosa: A survival guide for families, friends and sufferers. Psychology Press.
Watson, H. J., Yilmaz, Z., & Thornton, L. M. (2019). Hü bel CA, Coleman JR, Gaspar HA et al. Genome-wide association study identifies eight risk loci and implicates metabo-psychiatric origins for anorexia nervosa. Nat Genet, 51, 1207-1214.
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