Skip to main content

Terminal anorexia nervosa: three cases and proposed clinical characteristics.

Author
Abstract
:

Most individuals with eating disorders will either recover, settle into an unrecovered but self-defined acceptable quality of life, or continue to cycle from crisis to relative stability over time. However, a minority of those with severe and enduring eating disorders recognize after years of trying that recovery remains elusive, and further treatment seems both futile and harmful. No level of harm reduction proves achievable or adequately ameliorates their suffering. In this subgroup, many of those with anorexia nervosa will experience the medical consequences of malnutrition as their future cause of death. Whereas anyone who wishes to keep striving for recovery despite exhaustion and depletion should wholeheartedly be supported in doing so, some patients simply cannot continue to fight. They recognize that death from anorexia nervosa, while perhaps not welcome, will be inevitable. Unfortunately, these patients and their carers often receive minimal support from eating disorders health professionals who are conflicted about terminal care, and who are hampered and limited by the paucity of literature on end-of-life care for those with anorexia nervosa.

Year of Publication
:
2022
Journal
:
Journal of eating disorders
Volume
:
10
Issue
:
1
Number of Pages
:
23
Date Published
:
2022
URL
:
https://jeatdisord.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3
DOI
:
10.1186/s40337-022-00548-3
Short Title
:
J Eat Disord
Download citation