Am J Psychiatry 1997; 154:566-569
Copyright © 1997 by American Psychiatric Association
Prediction of low body weight at long-term follow-up in acute anorexia nervosa by low body weight at referral
J Hebebrand, GW Himmelmann, W Herzog, BM Herpertz-Dahlmann, HC Steinhausen, M Amstein, R Seidel, HC Deter, H Remschmidt and H Schafer
Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Marburg, Germany. Hebebran@post.med.uni-marburg.de
OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the hypothesis that in acute anorexia
nervosa a low body weight predicts a poor weight prognosis for the future.
METHOD: The body mass indexes at referral of 272 female patients were
examined in relation to the body mass indexes of these patients after a
mean follow-up of 9.5 years. RESULTS: The overall correlation between body
mass indexes at referral and at follow-up was r = 0.33. Despite this low
correlation, the 100 patients with body mass indexes less than 13 kg/m2 at
referral had low weights at long-term follow-up. Eleven of the 12 deceased
patients were among these 100 patients, as were 24 of the 46 surviving
patients whose body mass indexes were 17.5 kg/m2 or less at follow-up.
CONCLUSIONS: For patients with anorexia nervosa, a body mass index less
than 13 kg/m2 at referral indicates a substantial risk for chronic anorexia
nervosa and death related to emaciation.
