Anorexia Nervosa
Criteria for Diagnosing Anorexia Nervosa
- Refusal or inability to maintain a normal body weight.
- Adults: less than 85 percent of ideal body weight or a body mass index (BMI) of 17.5 or lower
- Children: less than 85 percent of body weight expected for age and height or failure to gain weight during a growth period, leading to body weight less than 85 percent of that expected
- Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat
- body image disturbance
- denial of seriousness of low weight
- at least three skipped menstrual periods in a row (for females who have begun menstruating)
Subtypes of Anorexia Nervosa
The two subtypes of anorexia nervosa are:
- Restricting: maintaining a low body weight by dietary restriction or exercise only
- Binge eating/purging: engaging in binge eating, self-induced vomiting, or misuse of diet pills, laxatives, or diuretics (water pills) during the current episode of low body weight