EATING DISORDERS – CLINICAL PICTURE

Abstract

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders characterized by voluntary abstention and compulsive ingestion of food, followed by purgative methods, respectively. Both pathologies are related, once they present symptoms in common: a prevalent idea involving excessive preoccupation about weight, a distortion of body image, and a pathological fear of gaining weight. Generally, the profile of patients with eating disorders is: white female adolescents who have a high social, cultural and economic status. However, increasingly, such conditions have been involving other classes, including male Afro adolescents; pre-teens and patients who have lower social, cultural and economic status. As for the etiopathogeny of anorexia nervosa, there is not only one etiology behind it. A multifactor model is believed to exist, including family, social, cultural, psychological, economic, genetic, and biological factors. In this study we show how such conditions start, criteria for diagnoses, clinical differences between bulimia and anorexia, underling clinical complications, diagnoses differentials, related psychiatric comorbidities, progress, and follow up of such disorders. Considering the high prevalence and morbidity of such syndromes a better understanding of their manifestations and related complications is mandatory to reach early diagnoses. This way, patients will not seek treatment only when they already exhibit severe conditions.