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Anorexia Nervosa: Long-term Outcome in 50 Female Patients

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Anne Hall ,
Enid Slim ,
Fiona Hawker  and
Clare Salmond
Anne Hall*
Affiliation:
Anorexia Nervosa Project, Department of Psychological Medicine, Wellington Clinical School of Medicine, University of Otago, Wellington, New Zealand
Enid Slim
Affiliation:
Anorexia Nervosa Research Project. University of Rochester, New York
Fiona Hawker
Affiliation:
Anorexia Nervosa Research Project. Hutt Regional Community Mental Health Services (Inc), Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand
Clare Salmond
Affiliation:
Epidemiology Unit, Wellington Public Hospital, Wellington, New Zealand
*
∗Correspondence.
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Summary

Fifty consecutively referred female patients with anorexia nervosa were followed-up to identify those completely healthy at a minimum of four years (mean eight years) since onset. As well as using Morgan's Outcome Measures, an independent psychiatrist elicited details of food/weight pre-occupation and psychiatric state. The outcome results, based on weight and menstruation, (36% ‘good’, 36% ‘intermediate’, and 26% ‘poor’ including 2% dead, and 2% not assessed) did not differ significantly from those of the three similar published studies on similar patients; 62% of patients continued to have some food/weight pre-occupation. DSM III criteria for a psychiatric disorder other than eating disorder were fulfilled by 50%; dysthymic disorder was common (34%), occurring exclusively in patients with continuing eating disorder symptoms, while only 20% of the sample were free of any physical or mental abnormality. Of 52 prognostic factors studied, only four were significantly related to the outcome measures. Length of illness at presentation was the only prognostic factor common to all four similarly conducted studies.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 145 , Issue 4 , October 1984 , pp. 407 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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