The Changing Face of Anorexia

Victims Of Anorexia Are Getting Older, Younger, And More Diverse

(WebMD) 
"For women in their 30s, it may be that they want to have children and it forces them to confront something that might be affecting their fertility," says Doug Bunnell, PhD, past president of NEDA and the clinical director of the Renfrew Center of Connecticut. (Headquartered in Philadelphia, the Renfrew Center operates treatment facilities for eating disorders in several states.)

"In the 40s and 50s, what might spur a re-emergence of the disease, and a decision to seek treatment, is often some sort of disruption: divorce, death, cancer or other illness scare, empty nest syndrome — any sort of developmental transition," he adds.

Anorexia Is Getting Younger, Too

As the face of anorexia gets older, it's also getting younger.

"For a long time, kids have talked about weight and being fat or thin at a young age," says Bunnell. "But what we're seeing now is an earlier emergence of actual eating disorder behavior. The research hasn't caught up with what we're seeing clinically, but anecdotally, we're treating girls of 10, 9, and 8 years old with full-blown anorexia nervosa."

One heartbreaking challenge to diagnosing these girls: a key diagnostic criterion for anorexia is the loss of menstrual periods, but more and more of these girls are too young to have even had a first period yet.

Besides age, ethnicity is a telling factor in current cases of anorexia. "For Caucasian and Hispanic girls and women, the rates of anorexia are basically indistinguishable," says Bunnell. "On the other hand, there does seem to be some protective factor from anorexia if you're African-American."

Studies have indeed found very few African-American women with anorexia, compared to white, Asian, and Hispanic women. But that doesn't mean that they are free from eating disorders.