Dermatologic findings in the evaluation of adolescents with suspected eating disorders.

Eating disorders are important causes of morbidity, with peak incidence and prevalence during adolescence and young adulthood. The assessment of adolescent patients with suspected eating disorders is not always straightforward. Youth may underreport eating disorder behaviors or deny that the behaviors are occurring. Moreover, symptoms of other medical or psychiatric conditions may be mistaken for an eating disorder and cooccurring conditions may complicate the clinical presentation. A thorough and careful evaluation is needed to establish the diagnosis and exclude other conditions. Dermatologic findings may provide important clues in this evaluation.