“Real World” Prevalence of Anorexia Nervosa

First published in Psychiatry Weekly, Volume 2, Issue 32, on August 20, 2007

A study in The American Journal of Psychiatry gathered data on the lifetime prevalence, incidence, and 5-year recovery rates of anorexia nervosa (AN) in the general population. 2,881 women from the 1975–1979 birth cohorts of Finnish twins were interviewed via telephone by clinicians. Women who screened positive for AN symptoms (N=292) were compared to their negative-screen co-twins (N=134) and to random, negative-screen women (N=210) to determine the clinical outcomes of recovery. Lifetime prevalence of AN was 2.2%. Incidence of AN in women between 15–19 years of age was 270 per 100,000 person-years, and the 5-year recovery rate was 66.8%. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/164/8/1259

-LS