Eating behavior disorders in patients hospitalized in a Mental Health Service

Abstract

Eating disorders (ED) have a high prevalence during adolescence, associated with high morbidity and mortality. In our country, there are no data that characterize adolescent inpatients with ED.

Objective: To describe and analyze hospitalizations of children and adolescents due to ED admitted in a Pediatric Mental Health Service (PMHS).

Patients and Method: Data were collected from the clinical record of patients with ED hospitalized in the PMHS of the Hospital Roberto del Río during 2005–2015. The following admission variables were studied: cause for hospitalization, ED type, nutritional status, systemic involvement, and psychosocial variables (psychiatric comorbidities, family functioning, abuse, and suicide ideation/attempt). The t-Student test was used for quantitative variables and the chi-square or Fisher Test for qualitative variables for the comparison between groups.

Results: 93 patients were included, with an average age of 14.6 years, 84% of them were women. The most frequent diagnosis was anorexia nervosa (AN) (71%) and the most frequent cause for hospitalization was the failure of outpatient treatment, followed by suicide ideation/attempt. At admission, 40% of the patients had malnutrition, 96% psychiatric comorbidity, and 88% family dysfunction.

Conclusion: AN was the most frequent ED among inpatients and the failure of outpatient treatment was the main cause for hospitalization. The latter could be explained, in part, by the high prevalence of family dysfunction and psychiatric comorbidity of patients and their families which would complicate outpatient treatment.