A review on eating disorders and adolescence.

Eating disorders in adolescence are a public health concern with both personal costs and a financial burden for the community health services. This paper is a review of incidence and gender differences of eating disorders; comorbid psychopathology, including substance abuse, mood disorders, anxiety disorders and personality disorders; developmental and intellectual factors; family, socio-cultural functioning and birth order; self-injury and suicidal behaviour with health outcome and therapy success rate. We have also asked several questions from our clinical experience and tried to answer them with our clinical knowledge and based on literature review. Overall, there is an indication that therapy success is significantly correlated with (low) manifestation, specifically for social problems and aggressivity. Due to the complexity of factors involved in the manifestation of eating disorders, the inclusion of cognitive-behavioural therapy as well as family-oriented therapeutic concepts coupled with medical treatment would appear to offer an intervention inventory, which would be most effective in offering adolescents optimal treatment programmes. The implications of our review is discussed in terms of psychotherapeutic treatment plans for adolescents in clinical care.