Anorexia in the elderly—an annotation

Abstract

Genuine anorexia nervosa starting in the elderly is thought relatively uncommon. Some previously reported cases may have been elderly depressives with loss of appetite rather than true eating disorder. The condition also has to be distinguished from “late onset” anorexia in mature but younger women. Two illustrative patients are briefly reported. Some possible psychological mechanisms in this syndrome are discussed in the context of the relatively small total number of previously reported single cases. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

An audit of a British sample of death certificates in which anorexia nervosa is listed as a cause of death

“…They described a bimodal distribution of deaths from anorexia nervosa by age at death and postulated an old age variant of anorexia nervosa. Hewitt et al (2001) cited case reports of anorexia nervosa in the elderly (Gowers & Crisp, 1990;Hall & Driscoll, 1993;Riemann, McNally, & Meier, 1993) to support this hypothesis. Our findings, in terms of the distribution of age at death, are similar, but we were not persuaded by their argument for a late-onset or reemergent variant of anorexia nervosa.…”

Eating disorders in older women: Does late onset anorexia nervosa exist?

“…In 19 cases, it is suggested that the eating disorder developed after the age of 50 years. [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] There is however little or no information about their adolescence or early twenties, which we suggest may have revealed a lifelong illness in these women.…”

Characteristics of Middle-Aged Women in Inpatient Treatment for Eating Disorders

“…Relatively little attention has been paid to exploring body image concerns and eating problems in women 35 years and older. However, there is some evidence to suggest that body image disturbances and eating disorders occur in middle-aged women and are likely under diagnosed in this population (Hall & Driscoll, 1993;Lewis & Cachelin, 2001).…”