The clinical presentation of anorexia nervosa in males

A major clinical and prognostic study of anorexia nervosa in male subjects is being carried out at the Professorial Psychiatric Unit, St. George's Hospital, London. A preliminary description of a number of clinical features is given. The male patients display the classical syndrome of anorexia nervosa and earlier doubts as to the condition's occurence in the male are laid to rest. Contrary to some earlier suggestions, from this study, the condition does not appear to have an earlier onset than it does in the female. Mean onset for our subjects was 17 years 2 months and age at presentation was 20 years 7 months. Duration of illness at presentation varied widely, with a mean of 3 years 5 months. Weight loss for this study population had a mean of 32.5%. At 73.4%, MPMW and mean weight at presentation were somewhat higher than for a comparable female group. The advisability of DSM-III's rigid diagnostic criteria in this issue is questioned. While bulimia and vomiting were recorded marginally less often than in females, overactivity was more frequent. Loss of libido was marked during illness and few patients objected to this. Some possible explanations of the absence of ambivalence to this feature of the illness are discussed.