News: Anxiety linked to eating disorders

[Guest guest]

Sunday, December 5, 2004

Anxiety linked to eating disorders

Kids' phobias, other ills are often antecedents, a study finds.

By LEE BOWMAN

Scripps News Service

Anxiety disorders in childhood may be a prelude to eating disorders

that often strike young women in their teens and 20s, according to a

new study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found that two thirds of

people with eating disorders had experienced some sort of clinical

anxiety, such as social phobia, panic attacks or obsessive

compulsive disorder, at some point in their lives.

A significant number of them - 42 percent - developed an anxiety

disorder when they were children, long before their eating disorders

appeared.

After they had recovered from an eating disorder, anxiety remained

more common among the women than in the general population. Twenty

percent to 30 percent typically experience anxiety over the course

of a lifetime.

" We identified a strong link between anxiety disorders and eating

disorders that shows they not only share many of the same

personality traits, but also likely share a genetic pathway, " said

Dr. Walter Kaye, a professor of psychiatry at Pittsburgh's School of

Medicine and lead author of the study published in the December

issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The study, carried out by an international team of researchers,

included 672 people with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa -

unable to eat - or bulimia nervosa - food bingeing and purging.

Thestrength of the bond between anxiety and eating disorders was

further bolstered by a finding that nearly all the women reported

having certain anxiety traits, such as harm avoidance, generalized

anxiety and perfectionism, even if they don't have symptoms severe

enough to be diagnosed as an illness.

The researchers used standard psychiatric tests to assess anxiety,

and found that two anxiety disorders appeared more often than

others - 41 percent of the participants had a history of obsessive

compulsive disorder, which involves distressing obsessions and

senseless rituals - and 20 percent had social phobia.

Particularly striking was that 23 percent of the patients reported

having had obsessive compulsive disorder in childhood - normally the

condition begins in the 20s, with only 2 percent to 3 percent of

cases occurring in children. Kaye said the condition could be a

particularly important signal that those children need to be watched

for eating disorders down the road.

The same collaborative group is currently conducting a study on the

genetic contribution to anorexia, seeking a study group made up of

families that have at least two relatives with the condition.

[Guest guest]

Yeah, that and my mother and father making me clean my plate when I

didn't want the food on it in the first place! I am a very strongly

against this policy now as an adult. If the child takes one fork full

and tastes the food- and then doesn't want more- then enough. Don't

force them to eat food beyond trying one spoon full. Here I am as an

adult at the age of 43 and I still feel guilty if I don't " clean the

plate " . Who made up this nonsense?

--

Lap RNY April 7, 2004

Dr. Petrick, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pa.

SW 445, DOS 412, CW 323, GW 200

Friedabob on Yahoo Messenger if anyone wants to chat.

[Guest guest]

until reciently karen i was sure it was my mother and all those poor

starving kids in china that my mother knew personally...

sighs.

peach

> Yeah, that and my mother and father making me clean my plate when

I

> didn't want the food on it in the first place! I am a very

strongly

> against this policy now as an adult. If the child takes one fork

full

> and tastes the food- and then doesn't want more- then enough.

Don't

> force them to eat food beyond trying one spoon full. Here I am as

an

> adult at the age of 43 and I still feel guilty if I don't " clean

the

> plate " . Who made up this nonsense?

>

> --

>

> Lap RNY April 7, 2004

> Dr. Petrick, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pa.

> SW 445, DOS 412, CW 323, GW 200

> Friedabob on Yahoo Messenger if anyone wants to chat.

[Guest guest]

When I grew up we had state subsidized " school dinners " (lunches) at

school. They cost about 50 cents per day unless you were too poor to

pay, then they were free. We were not allowed to leave the lunch table

until we had eaten everything. I remember spending entire recesses

sitting in the school cafeteria at the age of 5 because I couldn't

stomach the unfilleted herrings they served!!! Unfortunately I loved all

the " puddings " which usually consisted of items like treacle sponge, jam

tart or apple pie with custard - I would go back for seconds or even

thirds!

To this day my husband hates leaving any food on his plate at a

restaurant. He apologizes to the server!!! When I first met him he used

to try to get me to take half his leftovers so there would be less left

on his plate!

We also had free whole milk at school (1/2 pint per child) until

Margaret Thatcher took it away! Nobody worried about fat in those days.

Food rationing after WWII ended in Britain the year I was born (1955).

All calories, where ever they came from, were considered good at that

time.

Carol

Re: News: Anxiety linked to eating

disorders

Yeah, that and my mother and father making me clean my plate when I

didn't want the food on it in the first place! I am a very strongly

against this policy now as an adult. If the child takes one fork full

and tastes the food- and then doesn't want more- then enough. Don't

force them to eat food beyond trying one spoon full. Here I am as an

adult at the age of 43 and I still feel guilty if I don't " clean the

plate " . Who made up this nonsense?

--

Lap RNY April 7, 2004

Dr. Petrick, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, Pa.

SW 445, DOS 412, CW 323, GW 200

Friedabob on Yahoo Messenger if anyone wants to chat.

To visit your group on the web, go to:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GastricBypass-LOSERS/