A new study showed that the number of teens with hidden eating disorder, or "eating disorder not otherwise specified" (EDNOS), has increased by 500 percent between 2005 and 2009.
EDNOS is an eating disorder characterized by being thin, but not as thin or underweight as those with anorexia or bulimia. Although little is known of this condition, most doctors diagnose their patients with EDNOS as a default. Almost 40 percent of the diagnoses related to eating disorder are EDNOS. These patients are not dangerously thin, but are still at risk to the life-threatening effects anorexic patients face, such as weight concerns, extreme body dissatisfaction and dietary restraint.
Melissa Whitelaw, study lead author from the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Melbourne, worked with her colleagues in studying the data of 99 teens aged 12 to 19. The participants were grouped into two: 73 patients were diagnosed with anorexia, while the rest showed symptoms of EDNOS.
The researchers found out that both groups showed high risk of complications such as lowered pulse rate; abnormal heart beat rhythm, and extremely low phosphate levels in the blood, despite their weight differences. Further analysis revealed that the number of teens with EDNOS has drastically increased between the six-year follow-up periods. During the start of the study, only eight percent was diagnosed with EDNOS but the rate jumped to 47 percent in 2009.
"I was surprised to see how much it increased," Whitelaw told Healthday News. "I was also surprised at how similar they were not only physically but also psychologically. Everything about them was anorexia except that they don't look really skinny."
Whitelaw advised that physicians should cautiously examine their patients in order to classify them in the correct group and offer proper treatment. EDNOS treatment is rare and most often, patients diagnosed with this condition were advised to undergo cognitive-behavioral therapy combined with antidepressant medications.
Further details of the study were published in the Aug. 28 issue of Pediatrics,
