More Than Half A Million U.S. Teens Have Had Eating Disorders, Study Finds

CHICAGO -- More than half a million U.S. teens have had an eating disorder but few have sought treatment for the problem, government research shows.

The study is billed as the largest and most comprehensive analysis of eating disorders. It involved nationally representative data on more than 10,000 teens aged 13 to 18.

Binge-eating disorder was the most common, affecting more than 1.5 percent of kids studied. Just under 1 percent had experienced bulimia, and 0.3 percent had had anorexia. Overall, 3 percent had a lifetime prevalence of one of the disorders. Another 3 percent of kids questioned had troubling symptoms but not full-fledged eating disorders.

The study was released online Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry.

The rates are slightly higher than in other studies. And the study is based on kids and parents interviewed over two years ending in 2004. But co-author and researcher Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institute of Mental Health says similar rates likely exist today.

More than half the affected teens had depression, anxiety or some other mental disorder. Sizeable numbers also reported suicide thoughts or attempts.

Merikangas said the results underscore the seriousness of eating disorders.

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Comments

[LivelyLexie]

08:51 PM on 04/20/2011

A lot of these comments mention weight concerns when a lot of the time it has very little to do with health concerns. Many times, it's about control or other psychological issues.

[Meredith Terpeluk]

06:15 PM on 04/13/2011

You don't need a study to figure this out. Check out my blog post on this: http://findyourhealthyvoice.com/2011/04/13/more-than-half-of-us-teens-with-eating-disorders/

[IMDATRAINER]

11:06 AM on 03/14/2011

Teenage girls and women aren't the only ones affected by eating disorders. More and more men are coming forward with eating issues of their own.

http://www.angrytrainerfitness.com/2010/11/eating-issues-and-men/

[Cory Fitz]

10:30 AM on 03/13/2011

But that looks like such a healthy lunch...

[Janis Johnson]

11:23 PM on 03/11/2011

I found it interesting that people who are truely anorexics use food as a way to have some control over their lives.
Perhaps they have overprotective parents, are not allowed to make their own decisions, are not allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. They have parents who have high expectations and expect them to do as they are told and not ask questions. The kids have no control over their own lives....and refusing to eat gives them that control. It makes them feel proud of themselves when they don't eat and they lose weight. As a side benefit, it makes them 'slim', the American ideal. But sooner or later they are unable to stop their destructive food control and need help. Not just in learning to eat again, but in learning why they felt they had no control in their lives.

[Kevin Atlanta]

11:06 AM on 03/09/2011

With the Corporate Collective Entity driving our agriculture Americans are just beginning to feel what the commodities traders created in rice 3 years ago, drives coffee to $10 a bucket with the bucket getting ever smaller the garden we've been feeding out of since last August is our salvation.
Plant your victory patch and feed you as much as you are able.
We keep 7 households supplied with fresh veggies, a roadside stand and our home and freezer with our second crop of English Peas, Lettuce, Bok Choi, Collards, Cabbages, Swiss Chard and Spinach enough to make it a joy to go to the patch and murder your own lunch....  

All those defenseless veggies.

PS: I have a row of lettuce that I've named with all the Dubya and Wrecking Crew and have done this consecutively for the past 4 months just to have the joy of ripping them out by the roots and consuming them.

Tongue in cheek humor aside this is a great time to get your veggie patch planned and into production.

Here in Florida Tomatoes are $4 a pound in the chain stores and the farmer sure isn't getting that kind of money into their hands but the Corporate Collective Agriculture sure gets theirs.

[chiara0]

09:28 AM on 03/09/2011

So when people eat too little it's an eating disorder. The morbidly obese, they don't have an eating disorder?

[Kaila Kristin]

01:12 PM on 03/10/2011

Binge-eating disorder.

[Even17]

03:00 PM on 04/18/2011

no, they do. it's a different eating disorder, but it is an eating disorder.

[TheBlondeRaven]

10:32 PM on 03/08/2011

I expected much higher numbers.

[worker beenumbed]

09:26 PM on 03/08/2011

All city workers in Wawatosa Wisconsin must have a colonoscopy when they reach 50.Think about how lucky you are to be young and stop eating offbeat.

[MsVella]

09:19 PM on 03/08/2011

Wait, why the picture of a healthy meal?

[merlinspinoza]

03:25 PM on 03/08/2011

a person is a wholeness; the human habitat is a wholeness; the ecology is a wholeness[this is also a comment about the whole health section]

modern education and living has fragmented things into this or that, departments specialization

traditional cultures cling too much perhaps to oneness; modern society is the opposite extreme: worshipping newness as a saviour from unchanging axiomatic truths

a most usefull thing this health section can do is not to fragment issues into this problem or that disease. there is little difference between this or that sickness or health problem it's simply an expression of entropy[stress] manifesting in different mental and/or physical areas.
health is consciousness of healthy and happy habits

consciousness is in essence unbounded pure indivisible intelligence.

Dr Susan Blumenthal might learn Transcendental meditation (TM)

Mehmet Oz learned it some month ago and spoke very positively about it at the "change begins within"' fund raiser

the official canadian TM website said 8 000 doctors have learned TM. John Hagelin said at a press conference '10 000 doctors are recommending TM to their patients'. in England NHS pays for instruction in TM
in USA TM and Maharishi Ayur Veda qualifies for category 1 CME [continuing medical education ] credits for MDs

TM is health care .TM promotes pure unbounded consciousness .
sickness care doctors do when sickness exists; when sickness doesnt exist Doctors arnt needed except for health care for prevention

that is consciousness of happy healthy habits and that is TM

[stape45]

02:35 PM on 03/08/2011

Did the survey check to see what percentage of those children were on drugs - legal or illegal?

[gaffagirl1]

04:04 PM on 03/08/2011

Which drugs do you think cause you to binge, purge, or purposely starve yourself? Losing your appetite or being excessively hungry due to taking a drug (legal or illegal) is not the same as disordered eating.

[Mustique]

10:58 PM on 03/08/2011

Actually, the question should be what percentage of the teenagers were on prescription anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication? I bet a very small percentage. For many of these teens, eating disorders become a way of managing anxiety and depression, a way of self-medicating. The sad thing is this goes unrecognized as parents and therapists focus on the more superficial things.

[traceymarie]

04:55 PM on 03/08/2011

Pay for an ad, stop spamming.

[VeggieLove]

08:20 PM on 03/08/2011

Enough already! You're not fooling anyone.

[alahnar]

02:10 PM on 03/08/2011

First of all, a story about an eating disorder problem with a picture of a healthy-looking salad is ridiculous.

Second of all, I had an eating disorder that started when I was 11 and didn't really go into remission until two years ago, around the time I was 18 and left my mother's home. To people who are saying commonsense eating and fad diets are to blame for this epidemic, you truly have a sorry understanding of the causes, treatment, and prevention of eating disorders. It was far from a "fad diet" to lose weight. I WISH that had been my reason for starting! A fad diet would have been a welcomed break from fasting, binging, purging, cutting, binging, fasting, purging....it was a never-ending cycle of horror. I WISH my motivation had been thinnness and health. Maybe then I wouldn't have developed an eating disorder! Educate yourself, people!!!

[Fred Butters]

04:10 PM on 03/08/2011

My cousin had an eating disorder and all she would eat was one big salad a day... of course it took her about an hour to eat it, but she thought that limiting herself to such low amounts of "healthy" foods would keep her skinny.

[alahnar]

10:10 AM on 03/10/2011

That's unfortunate. It does not, however, negate in any way what I said Having an article about an eating disorder accompanied by a picture of a healthy lunch is absurd, especially given America's current food climate. I weigh 120 pounds at five foot three --- by no means skinny, but not fat, either. When I go to my family's in rural Minnesota, they tell me I'm "too skinny" and I look unhealthy --- which is obviously ridiculous. If I choose a big salad for an entree, they're worried (mind you, they didn't know about my eating disorder), but choosing a burger and fries is completely normal and no one expresses concern. So it's a double-edged sword: yes, there is an eating disorder problem, and YES, there are many who eat well and are fit who are perceived to be eating disordered when they are NOT.

[VA Jill]

01:25 PM on 03/08/2011

Let's talk also about the fact that some of these eating disorders are ADULT-instigated, particularly in sports and related activities. How about the gymnastics coach or ballet instructor who insists that the teen remain thin and underdeveloped? Or the wrestling coach who forces the boys to wrestle *under* their normal weight? The latter happened to my son. Fortunately he got tired of it all and quit wrestling.