Anorexia nervosa: differences and similarities between adolescents with and without a history of obesity

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate clinical differences and similarities between anorexia nervosa (AN) patients with and without a history of obesity. We evaluated 108 patients (10–18 years old) with the restricting or purging subtype of AN, treated at a public referral facility in Brazil. To evaluate clinical characteristics, we used a standardized psychiatric interview, the Development and Well-Being Assessment, the Children's Global Assessment Scale, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), and body mass index (BMI)-for-age percentile. The mean age was 14.8±2.5 years, and 95 (88.0%) of the patients were female. Of the 108 patients evaluated, 78 (72.2%) had restrictive AN and 23 (21.3%) had a history of obesity. Patients with and without a history of obesity were similar in terms of age at onset, time from symptom onset to treatment, duration of treatment, impact of the disease on global functioning, and comorbidities. At treatment initiation, those with a history of obesity were at a higher BMI-for-age percentile and scored higher on the Weight Concern subscale of the EDE-Q. We conclude that severe cases of AN can occur in patients with and without a history of obesity with no differences in terms of the baseline characteristics and the duration of treatment. The significantly higher BMI-for-age percentiles amongst patients with a history of obesity (at treatment initiation) suggests that the urge for treatment shouldn't be based on BMI percentile only.