Abstract
The patient was a 13 year-old girl with chief complaints of phobia of swallowing food and weight loss. She entered junior high school and soon caught a cold. After that, she felt continuous sore throat. Because of her fear of swallowing food, she ate only a little. Her weight decreased from 32kg to 25kg within 4 months. On admission, she wanted to gain weight, but she was not able to swallow. She was diagnosed as having anorexia nervosa with phobia for swallowing. In her family, her mother did not get along with her grandmother, and the patient was affected by this bad relationship. Her inability to relax worsened her neurotic predisposition. She was treated by enteral hyperalimentation, counseling, and cognitive behavior therapy. As a result, she became aware of her overadaptation, and she learned to relax. She gained weight and became mentally stable. For her swallowing phobia, she received autogenic training, followed by sysytematic desensitization using swallowing images. After 3 months, she was able to swallow food.
