Body morphology in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa: A short-term longitudinal study

Changes in body morphology of anorectic girls during illness as well as dur ing the treatment period were studied using data on 23 anthropometric trait s. The sample consisted of 20 adolescent girls, aged 16.05 +/- 2.21 years. Girls with shorter duration of anorexia nervosa have larger amounts of fat and muscle tissue on the upper arm, as well as thicker subcutaneous fat tis sue of the trunk, than the girls with longer duration of illness. These dif ferences remain even after the treatment period. Growth rate of girls with longer duration of illness has been decreased. Sl ight changes in the latent structure of body morphology in anorectic girls at the end of hospitalisation in comparison with those at the beginning of hospitalisation were observed. The above-mentioned changes could have resul ted from greater relative increase of fat than muscular tissue mass during hospitalisation and possible difference in the sequence of fat gain between , the trunk and the extremities. Further studies are needed.