An epidemiological study of eating disorders in Norwegian psychiatric institutions.
OBJECTIVE
The aim was to establish the prevalence of eating disorders in psychiatric patients.


METHODS
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).


CONCLUSIONS
The level of the prevalence figures is in the expected area, thus the present study confirms earlier studies with smaller psychiatric populations.
Götestam
K G
KG
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Medicine, University of Trondheim, Norway.
Eriksen
L
L
Hagen
H
H
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D002032:Bulimia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway / Q000453:epidemiology; D010343:Patient Admission / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*