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Anorexia nervosa or otherwise? The usefulness of adult diagnostic systems in child and adolescent eating disorders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2014

Alma Lydon ,
Onome Agbahovbe  and
Brendan Doody
Alma Lydon
Affiliation:
Warrenstown Inpatient Unit, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, Ireland
Onome Agbahovbe
Affiliation:
Warrenstown Inpatient Unit, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, Ireland
Brendan Doody
Affiliation:
Warrenstown Inpatient Unit, Blanchardstown, Dublin 15, Ireland
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Abstract

We report on the case of a 15-year-old boy referred to Warrenstown inpatient unit for management of what appeared to be a typical case of anorexia nervosa. Over the course of his admission however, this diagnosis was no longer considered appropriate and substituted for a food avoidance emotional disorder. This is one of a number of cases of young males who have recently been referred for inpatient management of anorexia nervosa but which emerged into something quite atypical. The limited usefulness of the ICD-10/DSM-IV criteria in the diagnosis of an eating disorder in childhood and adolescence in this case reflects a broader level of discontent with the application of such diagnostic classification systems in a paediatric population.

Keywords

Anorexia nervosaFood avoidance emotional disorderChild and adolescent psychiatryPsychosomatic illness.
Type
Case report
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 2006 , pp. 156 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006

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