Question

Daniella thinks that she is extremely overweight despite having a normal body weight. She avoids eating food and has recently lost a lot of weight. Despite this, she continues to think that she is overweight. Which eating disorder is Daniella most likely suffers from?

Answer 1

The correct answer is Anorexia nervosa

Anorexia nervosa is exaggerated weight loss related to low voluntary food intake and accompanied by body disillusionment and lack of menstruation for at least three consecutive months (the term amenorrhea is used). It was first described in the 19th century. The patient shows weight loss and thinness as a translation of the appetite disorder.

There are two subtypes: the classic or restrictive, in which loss of appetite occurs, and the one associated with binge eating, in which the patient has episodes of large food intakes associated with the attempt to compensate mainly through exercise or prolonged fasting and not the use of diuretics or laxatives as in bulimia nervosa.

The mandatory condition for diagnosis is amenorrhea, but the most important clinical feature is body disillusionment, with the patients' conviction that they are fat, and that they are extremely thin.