Monday, September 24, 2007

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia nervosa
Let me be
A. H. Crisp


Our senior psychiatrist who has an MRCPsych and some training in the UK says that in the UK he was seeing daily about 3 new cases of anorexia nervosa, but during the last 30 years he practicing psychiatry in Iraq he saw only 3 cases...
For me I did not see any case till now...that is why I find it difficult for me to read the anorexia nervosa chapter in the texts.... I think I am waiting for the first case to see, then I read about it... (ofcourse I have read it once, and I know how to diagnose it, but, don't have details..)
So I was so happy when another senior psychiatrist give me this book when she knew that am not that interested in anorexia nervosa..the book is written by Crisp, one of the first to write about that disorder, (i think he was the one who coined that term, is he? am not sure)...and this is part of my summary for that nicely written book which made me interested in the subject:

The majority of children do not seem overly concerned with their shape unless it is strikingly abnormal. Very fat children are usually teased and may become very self-conscious. They may come to consider that any inadequacies they feel they have are due to their fatness.

Pubertal girls (and their parents) first become aware of their breast development. Such development can, especially if achieved early, become a source of acute embarrassment and, for instance, stops such girls from going swimming or participating in communal sport. Excuses usually take the form of feeling generally unwell, tummy pains, etc.
For the first time food becomes equated with this new dimension of body weight, volume and shape- henceforth anorexia nervosa is part of the repertoire of possible morbid responses to maturational problems.
The disorder emerge within the context of puberty
.
the book also contains many drawings by some patients, this is an example where some patient drawing herself while she is gaining some whiet and how she thinks other people are looking at her when she eat...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Eating disorders...! One of my favotite topics! I must have a ton of books about them, some written by patients themselves, some by Dr.'s and others. Here, Steven Levenkron is condidered one of the experts on Anorexia and
Bulimia as well as self-Injury. I am sure if you checked out Levenkron on the internet you could find info on him and I could send you a couple of his books... "The Best Little Girl in the World" is a fictional account he wrote that is, what I believe to be an excellent look at the disease from the point of view of the patient, I would highly reccomend it and would love to send you a copy if you don't have one.

Must get ready for work (and tea), great topic! Take care, tracy

3eeraqimedic said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
saminkie said...

dear Tracy and 3eeraqimedics, thank you both for your interest, you incourage me to read and write more about that....thank you Tracy for letting me know about Steven Levenkron, I did not know him before....
and 3eeraqimedics, yeah it is because of culture, I know many peope in Iraq who see gaining weight as an indiator of good health...and some men see overweight women as more sexy....so it is not strange that anorexia noervosa is rare in Iraq..