More than 500,000 teens have an eating disorder

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CHICAGO - More than half a million U.S. teens have had an eating disorder but few have sought treatment for the problem, government research shows.

The study is billed as the largest and most comprehensive analysis of eating disorders. It involved nationally representative data on more than 10,000 teens aged 13 to 18.

Binge-eating disorder was the most common, affecting more than 1.5 percent of kids studied. Just under 1 percent had experienced bulimia, and 0.3 percent had had anorexia. Overall, 3 percent had a lifetime prevalence of one of the disorders. Another 3 percent of kids questioned had troubling symptoms but not full-fledged eating disorders.

Photos: 9 deadly myths about eating disorders

The study was released online Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry.

The rates are slightly higher than in other studies. And the study is based on kids and parents interviewed over two years ending in 2004. But co-author and researcher Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institute of Mental Health says similar rates likely exist today.

More than half the affected teens had depression, anxiety or some other mental disorder. Sizeable numbers also reported suicide thoughts or attempts.

Merikangas said the results underscore the seriousness of eating disorders.

[voxpopulus]

The US Department of Health and Human Services recently published teen obesity statistics. According to the report, 14% of adolescents in the United States are overweight. This figure has nearly tripled in the last 20 years. 14% obese vs 3% with "eating disorders"

Hmm.

[voxpopulus]

No. Obesity is the number one eating disorder, even in this age group, and you didn't even measure that. If people are turning into anorexic binge eaters, it isn't happening in my Walmart.

[formrusmcsgt]

More than half the affected teens had depression, anxiety or some other mental disorder
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Wonderful.....

The future ain't what it used to be, as Colin Powell mused.

[myth1958]

Although the percentages of eating-disorder kids seems low in this study, we should all pay heed to the warning signs which might show up in someone we love. Is it cost-effective to screen our young for the few (statistically) who suffer, or might scarce resources be used in other areas? Tell that to the parents of some young person who dies from hang-ups over food - or who is miserable every day as they thread their way through school, tormented by insecurities we never see until it is too late. Just like the preventive screenings we support for breast cancer, for colon cancer and a host of other ailments: saving one life is worth it. Let commentators debate the causes. Those of us who care about young people in our lives better be prepared to take the needed steps to throttle eating disorders in their infancy - or we'll be attending too many funerals for kids in their teens.

[pragmatist1]

Maybe that's because their over-indulgent parents never taught them anything about self-respect, self-esteem, responsibility, etc. I'm sick and tired about hearing the crap that these poor little kids are going through. I don't feel sorry for them or their parents. The psychology experiment of the 1960s is coming to full circle and remains a failure.

[voxpopulus]

Are you kidding? The kids of the sixties have turned into conservative jerks who tell their kids to do as they say, not as they did.

[billpl-2009]

just another way for government
to make up yet another program
to spend tax money

...that we don't have

[sepa2]

make then stay a month in a developing country. Everyone will be cured binge eaters do not have enough to eat and those who are picky will eat anything

[saturn05]

I would assume the majority of these sufferers are women. We need to figure this out. Why does someone who weighs 98 lbs look in the mirror and see nothing but a fat person staring back at them?