Definition, Symptoms and Treatment

 Anorexia is a psychological eating disorder

that causes individuals to obsess about their
body weight.
 As such, they have an obsessive desire to
lose weight, have a skewed body image and
have abnormal eating patterns
 The people suffering from anorexia usually
have a low weight relative to their height
(BMI)
 Restrictive eating and sometimes dieting
 Rapid weight loss/emaciation and
underweight
 Ritualistic eating patterns, for example,
eating alone, cutting food into small pieces
 Obsession with fat and calorie content of
food
 Fixation with food preparation techniques
 Withdrawal-avoidance of people, family and
social functions
 Amenorrhea: (an abnormal absence of
periods, usually characterized by the loss of
3 or more menstrual cycles)
 Extremely cold sensations
 Depression
 Presence of lanugo-soft body hairs on the
face and body
 Thinning and loss of hair
 Often, anorexia patients are treated by a
qualified team of eating disorder specialists
consisting of a nutritionist, therapist and
physician.
 Treatment of anorexia in full consists of
these three components: Nutritional,
medical and therapy
 Medical: the medical component of
treatment addresses any serious health issues
resulting from the body's deprivation of food.
Such issues include unstable heartbeat,
amenorrhea, electrolyte imbalance and
malnutrition
 Therapy: Therapy seeks to address
underlying issues surrounding anorexia.
These events include traumatic life events.
Individuals also learn coping skills and self-
expression
 Nutritional:
Nutritional treatment includes
interventions that help in weight restoration,
implementing and supervising meal plans and
educating the victim about normal eating
patterns.