Abstract
We investigated the prevalence and clinical features of patients with eating disorders among juvenile-onset type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM). Among one hundred patients with type 1 DM, eating disorders were found in four females, two adolescent girls and two young women. In the four affected patients, three were diagnosed as having binge eating disorders and one as anorexia nervosa. The overall prevalence of eating disorders was 4.0% (4/100); that in females was 7.1% (4/56); that in adolescents and young adults was 4.8% (4/84); and that in adolescent females and young adults was 8.5% (4/47). Patients with eating disorders had irregular eating habits and showed antipathy to dietary restraint. In most cases, they had poor glycemic control associated with noncompliance with self-management of diabetes. They declared indifferent or false reports in self-monitoring of blood glucose and used inuslin omission and underdosing. On the basis of these findings, adolescent girls and young women with type 1 DM seemed to have risk factors for developing eating disorders. In cases suspected of having eating disorders, a flexible and individualized psychological approach would appear to be paticularly important.
