There has been a remarkable increase in anorexia among teenagers in recent years, making it the third most common chronic condition among adolescent girls after obesity and asthma.
Anorexia is characterized by refusal to maintain a minimally normal body weight.
The number of people with partial or intermittent symptoms of anorexia is even higher, with five to ten times as many females believed to engage in fasting, self-induced vomiting and/or abuse of laxatives and diet pills.
Among adults, the prevalence of anorexia has remained fairly constant in recent years, although many anorexics go undiagnosed and never receive treatment.
According to statistics reported by the University of South Carolina Department of Mental Health, and estimated 3 percent of adolescent girls between the ages of ten and twenty – over half a million – suffer from anorexia.
The mortality rare associated with anorexia nervosa is twelve times higher than the death rate from all causes of death for females from fifteen to twenty-four years old, and they also exhibit an elevated rate of suicide.
Parents should also be aware that contrary to popular belief, boys are not immune to anorexia. Although only one tenth of the adult populations of anorexics are men, among adolescent, boys account for up to one third of all anorexics.
How common is anorexia?
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