Nutrition Education

Anorexia Nervosa (AN):

  • Refusal to maintain a normal bodyweight (less than 85% of appropriate weight for height).
  • Intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight.
  • Body weight heavily influences one’s self-evaluation.
  • Absence of at least 3 consecutive menstrual cycles (amenorrhea). Prescribed hormones (ie, birth control pill) can mask this.
  • RESTRICTING TYPE — The person does not engage in binge eating or purging (self-induced vomiting or misuse of laxatives). Starvation is the primary behavior.
  • BINGE/ PURGE TYPE — In addition to periods of starvation, the person has regularly engaged in binge eating or purging behaviors (self-induced vomiting and/or misuse of laxatives). This is often misunderstood as a person having both anorexia and bulimia.

American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2000).

Go Back

 

Page updated: 19-Nov-2008

Accessibility Policy

Student Health Services
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Anna M. Gove Student Health Center, PO Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170
VOICE 336.334.5340
FAX 336.334.5343