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Eating disorders, particularly anorexia, increase mortality risk

Recent findings indicated individuals with anorexia nervosa had mortality rates five times higher than that of age-matched peers.

To assess long-term mortality in anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other unspecified eating disorders, Manfred Maximilian Fichter MD, Dipl.-Psych, and Norbert Quadflieg Dipl.-Psych, of Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, followed a large sample of admitted inpatients through the Germany civil registry office (n = 5,839). Of these, 1,639 were treated for anorexia nervosa; 1,930 were treated for bulimia nervosa; 363 for binge-eating disorder; and 1,907 for other unspecified eating disorders.

Individuals with anorexia nervosa had a standard mortality ratio of 5.35, compared with 1.49 for bulimia nervosa, 1.5 for binge eating disorder, 2.39 for narrowly defined other unspecified eating disorders and 1.7 for widely defined other unspecified eating disorders.

Individuals with anorexia nervosa died earlier than individuals with bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and other unspecified eating disorders, who did not differ.

Significant predictors of shorter time to death included anorexia nervosa diagnosis, later age of disease onset, not living in a relationship and irregular discharge type following index inpatient treatment.

Suicidality was a univariate predictor of shorter time to death among individuals with bulimia nervosa only.

The majority of individuals with anorexia nervosa died from natural causes related to their eating disorder, according to researchers.

“There is still a desperate need to develop more effective treatments for eating disorders, especially anorexia nervosa,” Fichter said in a press release.

Disclosure: Please see the full study for a list of all authors’ relevant financial disclosures.