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Quality of Life in Adult Anorexia Nervosa

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Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation

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Abstract

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe mental disorder characterized by high mortality with typical onset in female adolescents. Quality of life (QoL) is strongly impaired in AN and potentially underestimated because of the ego-syntonicity of this illness which makes sufferers not fully aware of their symptoms. Taken together, eating disorders (including also bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder) are characterized by poor QoL when compared to the general population. However, data are mixed as to whether QoL is most impaired in AN or in other eating disorders. With respect to QoL in AN subtypes, the binge-purging one resulted to have poorer QoL levels than the restricting one. Those with AN reported levels of QoL comparable to those of schizophrenic and severely depressed patients. It is of importance that QoL is taken into account in treatments since outpatient and inpatient interventions were shown to be able to improve it effectively.

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Abbreviations

AN:

Anorexia nervosa

BED:

Binge eating disorder

BMI:

Body Mass Index

BN:

Bulimia nervosa

BP-AN:

Binge/purging-type AN

DSM:

Diagnostic and Statistical manual of Mental disorders

EDs:

Eating disorders

HRQoL:

Health-related quality of life

QoL:

Quality of life

R-AN:

Restricting-type AN

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eating Disorders Center, Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin – Turin, Italy, Turin, Italy

    Enrica Marzola & Giovanni Abbate-Daga

Authors
  1. Enrica Marzola
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  2. Giovanni Abbate-Daga
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Correspondence to Enrica Marzola .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Research Division, Faculty of Life Science and Medicine, King’s College London, London, UK

    Victor R. Preedy

  2. School of Life Sciences, University of Westminster, London, UK

    Vinood B. Patel

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Marzola, E., Abbate-Daga, G. (2019). Quality of Life in Adult Anorexia Nervosa. In: Preedy, V., Patel, V. (eds) Handbook of Famine, Starvation, and Nutrient Deprivation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55387-0_27

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