Anorexia Nervosa Duration Prime Risk Factor For Premature Death In Females With Eating Disorders.

Medscape (8/14, Cassels) reports that research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that the “duration of anorexia nervosa (AN) appears to be the prime risk factor for premature death in girls and women with eating disorders.” The “20-year follow-up study,” which included more than 280 patients, indicated “that treatment-seeking patients who had AN for a period of 0 to 15 years had more than a 3-fold increased risk for death compared with the general population, whereas for those who had AN for 16 to 30 years, the risk for mortality was increased almost 7-fold.”