Abstract

BENJET, Corina; MENDEZ, Enrique; BORGES, Guilherme  and  MEDINA-MORA, María Elena. Epidemiology of eating disorders in a representative sample of adolescents. Salud Ment [online]. 2012, vol.35, n.6, pp.483-490. ISSN 0185-3325.

Objetives The objective of this article is to estimate the prevalence of DSM-IV anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder in the general adolescent population of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. A further objective is to describe socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of youth who meet criteria for these disorders, the proportion with impairment, psychiatric comorbidity and suicidal behavior, as well as to estimate service utilization. Methods The data come from the Mexican Adolescent Mental Health Survey, a probablistic multi-stage survey representative of adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age, residents of the Mexico City Metropolitan Area. Trained interviewers administered face-to-face the World Mental Health computerized adolescent version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WMH-CIDI-A) to 3005 adolescents in their homes. The response rate was 71%. Results The lifetime prevalence of anorexia, bulimia and binge-eating disorder in the Mexico City adolescent population is 0.5%, 1.0% and 1.4%, respectively. Between 83% and 100% report any impairment and all of those with anorexia and almost half of those with bulimia and binge-eating disorder report serious impairment. However, only 14% to 24% of those with a 12-month eating disorder have sought treatment despite the associated impairment. There is greater prevalence of comorbid psychiatric disorders, suicidal behavior and psychosocial adversities in those with an eating disorder than in those without such a disorder. Conclusions These results clearly demonstrate a treatment gap for these disorders in our adolescent population. They highlight the importance of programs for the prevention of risky eating behaviors, early detection focusing on vulnerable groups such as those who have suffered adversity like sexual abuse, and the reduction of treatment seeking and utilization barriers.

Keywords : Anorexia; bulimia; binge-eating; epidemiology; adolescence.

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