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Anorexia nervosa in males
Author(s) -
Vandereycken W.,
Broucke S. Van den
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.1984.tb01233.x
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , psychology , anorexia , psychiatry , medicine , eating disorders
– The relatively small number of male anorexia nervosa patients is often used as an excuse for the scarce literature on this subject. An exhaustive review of the literature (1970 to 19801, searching for case reports, yielded information about 107 males described as having anorexia nervosa. According to current criteria, the diagnosis was well documented in 37 patients. Data on the clinical picture and the social background were analysed and compared with a sample of 148 female anorectics. It was found that from the clinical point of view anorexia nervosa is strikingly similar in both sexes. A cluster analysis revealed that three subgroups might be distinguished in male cases: a ‘(pre)pubertal’ variant, a ‘lower class', and a ‘middle class’ variant. It is concluded that male patients should be involved in any future research on this syndrome.