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An epidemiological study of eating disorders in Norwegian psychiatric institutions
Author(s) -
Götestam K. Gunnar,
Eriksen Lasse,
Hagen Helge
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
international journal of eating disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.785
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1098-108X
pISSN - 0276-3478
DOI - 10.1002/1098-108x(199511)18:3<263::aid-eat2260180308>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - norwegian , anorexia nervosa , eating disorders , bulimia nervosa , psychiatry , psychiatric comorbidity , epidemiology , comorbidity , population , medicine , outpatient clinic , psychology , environmental health , philosophy , linguistics
Objective: The aim was to establish the prevalence of eating disorders in psychiatric patients. Method: The total inpatient (n = 8,942) and outpatient (n = 10,125) Norwegian psychiatric population was investigated with a staff‐report questionnaire. Results: The prevalence of eating disorders in the inpatient population was 3.8% for women and 1.6% for men. In the outpatient population, the differentiated diagnoses anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and the comorbidity of AN + BN was 5.7%, 7.3%, and 1.6% for women, and 0.8%, 0.7%, and 0.3% for men (this could be reduced to AN and BN prevalences of 7.3% and 8.9% for women and 1.0% and 1.0% for men). Discussion: The level of the prevalence figures is in the expected area, thus the present study confirms earlier studies with smaller psychiatric populations. © 1995 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.