Nutritional recovery of underweight adolescents with anorexia nervosa: analysis of a hospital protocol

Abstract

anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric pathology that has one of the highest mortality rates among mental illnesses, estimated at 5.1 deaths per 1,000 people/year, and is associated with high comorbidity, both psychiatric and somatic. to characterize hospitalized adolescents and their nutritional rehabilitation using a standardized protocol. a descriptive-retrospective study of adolescent patients hospitalized at the San Carlos of Apoquindo Clinic with a diagnosis of AN, hemodynamically stable and without refeeding syndrome criteria, between 2015 and 2021. Epidemiological, clinical, and nutritional data of the patients were analyzed. of 46 patients studied, 37 were female; the average length of stay was 45.4 (SD ± 36.1) days; 53.8 % of the patients had mood disorder as psychiatric comorbidity, and the most common personality trait was obsessive-compulsive (36.9 %); the most frequent somatic comorbidity was thyroid pathology (19.2 %). The initial oral caloric intake was 1467 (SD ± 479) kcal, with an average weekly increase of 400 kcal, reaching 2430 (SD ± 457) kcal at discharge. An average body mass index (BMI%) percentage change of 7.8 % (SD ± 6.1) was obtained. this is the first national study that describes the nutritional rehabilitation of adolescents with AN and the length of hospitalization required to achieve it.