Abstract
Anorexia nervosa (AN) easily becomes a chronic disease. Many studies pointed out the relationship between patients with late onset and their poor prognosis. The objective of our study was to discuss the clinical features of late onset AN and its comorbidity with physical and mental disorders. Subjects consisted of 130 AN patients who were admitted to the Department of psychosomatic medicine of Toho University Hospital as outpatients. Based on the medical records, ten items were examined: age; age at onset; duration from onset until the first visit; type of disorder; body mass index (BMI) at the first visit; BMI max-min; depression level at the first visit; and percentage and details of comorbid physical and mental disorders. These 10 factors were compared among the three groups: early onset group (below 15 years old), peak onset group (15 to 24 years old), and late onset group (25 years old and above). The late onset group had the lowest mean BMI at first visit, which was significantly lower than the peak onset group. Moreover, the late onset group had a significantly higher prevalence of comorbid physical and mental diseases compared with the peak onset group. These results suggested that the BMI and comorbidities were important factors in late onset anorexia nervosa.
