Long Term Outcome of Anorexia Nervosa

Hsu, L.

Abstract

This is a pilot study to test the feasibility of conducting a long- term (20 year) follow-up on two cohorts of anorexia nervosa patients in the United Kingdom. The first consists of a consecutive series of 105 patients under the specialist care of Professor Arthur Crisp at the St. George's Hospital Medical School in London, and the second consists of 72 consecutive patients treated at a catchment area psychiatric service and recorded on the Aberdeen Psychiatric Case Register in Scotland. There is increasing concern about the long-term outcome of anorexia nervosa, two recent studies found the mortality at 20 years follow-up to be 15% and 18% respectively. This grim finding stands in contrast to the more encouraging outcome at four to 12 year follow-up. The two cohorts of this study, although not matched, will provide much needed information on the outcome of the illness as it affects different populations receiving different treatment. The study will attempt to determine (1) if it is possible to trace and locate at least 80% of the patients that are most probably still alive; (2) if it is possible to personally interview at least 70% of those successfully traced; (3) if the follow-up data can yield outcome ratings reliably; (4) if it is possible to collect follow-up data indirectly for those patients who refuse to be interviewed. If we are successful in tracing 80% of the patients and are able to directly interview 70% of a preselected sample in our pilot study, a full scale long-term follow-up study with these two cohorts will be proposed.