ANOREXIA-NERVOSA WITH AN EARLY-ONSET - SELECTION, GENDER, OUTCOME, AND RESULTS OF A LONG-TERM FOLLOW-UP-STUDY

Teen-age onset has been a characteristic trait of anorexia nervosa fro m the early, descriptions and onward. Early onset may be defined by us ing an age limit or by using menarche as a biological age limit. A rev iew of the literature indicates that there are relatively more boys am ong patients with an extremely early onset. When patients are recruite d exclusively, front clinics for children or front clinics for adults, various selection biases will result, having great importance for the interpretation of the findings. Results from a Swedish long-term stud y are presented showing outcome in patients with different age at onse t. The general trend is that early onset is predicting a better outcom e, but the long-term course is far from favorable in many early onset cases. There is a risk of intractable sequelae, e.g, short stature, if anorexia patients with an early onset are allowed to not a long or ch ronic course of illness.