title: Good outcome of adolescent onset anorexia nervosa after systematic treatment. Intermediate to long-term follow-up of a representative county-sample.
abstract: We studied the intermediate to long-term outcome of childhood and adolescent onset anorexia nervosa (AN), in a sample that had received systematic treatment based on close cooperation between parents, paediatric department and child and adolescent psychiatry. Of 55 female AN-patients, 51 were examined 3.5-14.5 years after treatment start. The material includes all AN-patients under 18 years in one county that received inpatient treatment and almost all that received outpatient treatment, during the time period 1986-1998. Forty-two (82%) subjects had no eating disorder (ED) at follow-up, one (2%) had AN, one (2%) bulimia nervosa (BN) and seven (14%) had less severe ED (EDNOS). Except the one with BN, none had bulimic symptoms. There was no mortality. Twenty (41%) had one or more other axis-1 psychiatric diagnoses at follow-up. Depression and anxiety disorders were most frequent. Psychosocial functioning assessed by Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) was fairly good; mean 73+/-SD14 for symptoms and mean 77+/-SD13 for functioning. Only 48% were satisfied with life, compared to 83% in a normal population sample. Our conclusion is that the eating disorder outcome was good. However, in accordance with other studies, many subjects had other psychiatric problems at follow-up.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Buskerud Hospital, 3004 Drammen, Norway. inger.halvorsen@r-bup.no
authors.forename: Inger
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Halvorsen
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.forename: Sonja
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heyerdahl
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D017668:Age of Onset; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D003866:Depressive Disorder; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D012919:Social Behavior; D016896:Treatment Outcome