Growth in Anorexic Teenage Boys
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- According to new research, teenage boys who suffer from anorexia also suffer from growth delays caused by the disease.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University characterize anorexia as a significant reduction in current or expected weight, refusal to gain weight, amenorrhea, and a disturbance in body image. In addition, there is an overvalued importance of weight for self-esteem or denial of the severity of weight reduction. During development, a healthy growing child or adolescent will have a proportionate height gain and weight gain. However, the authors write, "Because negative height gain is not possible, different degrees of weight loss all result in a similar degree of growth failure."
Researchers studied 12 teenage boys who were admitted for anorexia to the Pediatric Psychosomatic Department at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel-Hashomer, Israel, between January 1994 and December 1998. Upon admission, weight and height measurements were taken. The same measurements were collected during hospitalization and follow-ups. Of the 12 boys, 11 were found to have growth restrictions due to their illness and complete growth "catch-up" was not achieved by nine of the 12.
The authors write, "Whatever the reason, a delay in the diagnosis of [anorexia nervosa] in male adolescents may result in sever malnutrition and compromised height. Therefore, the diagnosis of [anorexia nervosa] should be considered in short, under weight adolescents, as well as in youths who demonstrate growth deceleration with hitherto normal height progression."
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SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2003;111:270-276
Last updated 2/17/2003.
