title: Pathological eating and body dissatisfaction in middle-aged and older women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To summarize the recent literature examining eating disorders, eating behavior, and body image in middle-aged and elderly women.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A small but evolving literature has begun to address the epidemiology, features, and potential treatment of eating disorders and related body-image concerns in middle-aged and elderly women. Preliminary findings suggest that pathological eating behaviors and frank eating disorders are surprisingly common in older women, as are associated body-image disturbances. Older women appear less likely to exhibit anorexia and bulimia nervosa and more likely to exhibit binge eating disorder and eating disorder not otherwise specified. The prevalence of such conditions in older women has likely increased in recent decades. On many indices of disordered eating and body image, older women with eating disorder resemble younger women with similar conditions, although older women exhibit certain unique concerns, such as dealing with menopause and with aging.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It appears that clinicians should be alert for eating and body-image disorder even in women well beyond the younger age range in whom these disorders have traditionally been described. Subsequent research should consider treatment strategies tailored for older women with eating disorders.
authors.affiliation: aUniversity Clinics for Psychosomatic Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria bParnassia Psychiatric Institute, The Hague cDepartment of Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands dDepartment of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York eBiological Psychiatry Laboratory, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mangweth-Matzek
authors.forename: Hans W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Hoek
authors.forename: Harrison G
authors.initials: HG
authors.lastname: Pope
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001828:Body Image / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008593:Menopause / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors