A girl at puberty suffering from anorexia nervosa shows mainly extreme emaciation and eating disorder.Criteria for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa were defined by the Research Group for Intractable Disease of the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan as follows;1. Loss of more than 20% of standard body weight.2. A history of weight loss for more than three months.3. Age of onset less than 30.4. Female.5. Amenorrhea.6. Eating disturbance.7. Disire to reduce body weight.8. Hyperacitivity.9. Denial of the existence of disease.10. Absence of evidence of organic disease or endogenous psychiatric disease.A typical case is a patient who fills all of these ten criteria. The patient who fills criteria numbers 1,2,and 10 is termed as atypical case. The criteria of DSM-III and Feighner are utilized in Europe and America. Even now, the cause of anorexia nervosa is unknown. In is a general consideration that the etiology of anorexia nervosa is a reversible functional disorder at the hypothalamus influenced by the upper center. Then, taking account of the current of psycho-social factor and etiology of anorexia nervosa, the hypotheses of Freud, Bruch and Masterson are influential. Recently, the idea of psychosomatic family by Minuchin and Palazzoli comes into the lime-light from the familial systematic standpoint. Garner and Garfinkel regard anorexia nevosa as a multi-determined disorder.
