Define Prognosis of Eating Disorders?
About 50% of the patients recover fully from anorexia nervosa and achieve normal weight, 30% improve but have a partial recovery and 20% will have lifelong problems with eating pattenis. Older age of onset, long duration of illness, extreme weight loss and significant depression result in poor prognosis. Bulimia has even poorer prognosis because of medical dangers of gorging and severe psychiatric disturbances. The suicide rate also is high in bulimic patients. Almost 40% of treated patients remain bulimic after one and a half year of treatment. About 2/3 experience relapse within a year of recovery. The outcome criteria e.g., weight, food intake, proper body image, menstruation and social, psychological and sexual adjustments must be assessed for a number of years after recovery. Early intervention and better treatment strategies today have helped in reducing the mortality from eating disorders.