What is Anorexia Nervosa?

Also known as: anorexia, AN

Anorexia nervosa, or simply anorexia, is a severe debilitating eating disorder that occurs most frequently in girls (from all socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic and racial groups) that is characterized by a distorted view of their body that leads them to believe they're overweight and need to restrict how much they eat, over exercise, and/or perform other behaviors that prevents them from gaining weight, almost to starvation.

There are two types of AN;

Restrictor type, characterized by decreased food intake.
Bulimia, also called binge-eating or purging type. Please see Bulimia for further information.

Reviewed by: Jack Wolfsdorf, MD, FAAP

This page was last updated on: 1/29/2019 3:21:13 PM