In this article, we will consider the symptoms of anorexia in girls. What is this disease? How does it manifest?
Anorexia is a specific syndrome in various embodiments that occurs under the influence of a known number of causes and manifests itself in a person's complete lack of appetite, despite the fact that there is a specific need for nutrition for the body itself. Symptoms of anorexia, manifested in actual metabolic diseases, gastrointestinal diseases, infectious and viral diseases, as well as in obvious mental disorders, will be discussed in this article.
Description of the disease
Before considering the features of anorexia, it is necessary to dwell on what the condition means, which leads to anorexia, that is, to a protein-energy deficiency. Protein deficiency is the result of nutrition, it is associated with an energy imbalance, as well as protein imbalance and a lack of other types of nutrients,resulting in an undesirable effect that affects tissues and functions.
In anorexia, protein-energy deficiency occurs against the background of insufficient food intake. At the same time, such a condition of the body can also be detected due to dysphagia, diarrhea, chemotherapy, heart failure, radiation therapy, fever, drug treatment and other influences that lead to protein deficiency. Anorexia nervosa is very common.
Symptoms of such protein-energy malnutrition are observed for a number of reasons. There is a decrease in weight in adults (which is not very noticeable in cases of obesity or general swelling), in children there is no necessary change in terms of weight gain and height.
Distinguishing Features
Let's pay attention to the final consideration of the general symptoms of the disease, which we were previously interested in. With anorexia (the so-called lack of appetite), patients lose weight, in addition to everything, this disease can develop in parallel with another type of disease (mental, neurotic, somatic disorders). Lack of appetite has a persistent character, which at the same time manifests itself along with nausea, and in some cases vomiting when trying to eat. Along with this, there is a high "saturation", when there is a feeling of fullness in the stomach even with a small amount of food eaten. This symptomatology can manifest itself as an unambiguously pronounced anorexia, but may be the leading symptoms of anorexia in women and signs of a gener althe patient's condition or coexist with a host of other complaints. Diagnosis in this case directly depends on what signs of anorexia are present.
What comes with it?
Anorexia can manifest during the following conditions:
- Diseases of the endocrine system - diabetes mellitus, thyrotoxicosis, Addison's disease, hypopituitarism and others.
- Malignant neoplasms that have different forms of manifestation and their own different localization properties.
- Helminthiasis.
- Alcoholism, drug addiction.
- Intoxication.
- Depression.
Note that the very definition of "anorexia" is used not only in the meaning of the symptom that represents this disease (lack of appetite), but this symptom also manifests itself in the form of the disease, which, in fact, is anorexia nervosa. Symptoms and treatment are interrelated.
High mortality
Pathology is characterized by a very high mortality rate among patients. Namely, on the basis of some studies, it is possible to accurately indicate its indicator - 20%. It should be noted that about half of this percentage of such cases falls precisely on the suicide of patients. And if we analyze the natural mortality against the background of anorexia, then this is due to the causes of heart failure, which, in turn, is due to the general exhaustion that the body of a sick person has reached. About 15% are women who, carried away by diets and weight loss obsessions, come toa condition during which they manifest pathological mental phenomena in combination with anorexia. In many cases, anorexia is detected in young girls or teenagers. Following in the footsteps of the victims of drug addiction and alcoholism, anorexics do not observe the fact that they have any abnormalities, just as they do not accept the level of severity of this disease. Such a disease tends to manifest itself in a number of variations.
Primary Anorexia Nervosa
Symptoms will be as follows. In such cases, there are situations when there is no appetite in children and adults, depending on one reason or another, as well as the loss of hunger in the course of hormonal disorders, neurological diseases and malignant tumors.
Anorexia nervosa
In this case, we mean a reduced feeling of hunger or its complete loss, which arose as a result of a diligent desire to lose weight (most often this kind of desire lacks an appropriate psychological justification) with an increased restriction of the amount of food taken. This type of anorexia can cause a number of serious consequences, which include cachexia and metabolic disorders. Thus, during the course of cachexia, patients completely ignore the fact that they have a frightening and repulsive appearance, in other cases, patients experience a feeling of great satisfaction when they achieve such results.
Psychic
Mental anorexia is also distinguished (in other words, neuropsychiatric ornervous cachexia). In this form of the disease, mental anorexia is observed as a state of loss of hunger with a complete refusal to eat due to a general decrease in appetite in a number of psychiatric diseases (depressive and catatonic states, delusions in relation to possible poisoning, etc.).
Mentally ill anorexia
The first symptoms are easy to recognize. In this form, people experience a very severe state of complete loss of sensation of hunger during wakefulness. The exclusivity of this form of the condition lies in the fact that there are cases when patients experience severe hunger during sleep.
Medicated anorexia
In this form, situations are observed in which patients lose their sense of hunger and provoke this loss either involuntarily (for example, during the treatment of a disease) or consciously. In the latter state, all forces are directed to gaining victory in the form of weight loss, they use appropriate drugs for this, in which there is a suppression of hunger. In addition, in this case, anorexia manifests itself as a side effect during the use of various drugs, antidepressants.
The conditions of psychic anorexia and morbid psychic anorexia have been sufficiently discussed to give a general description of these conditions. Most often, this concerns its painful form, which is characterized by a general clinical picture.
Anorexia symptoms
Symptoms of pathology are irritability, sadness, sometimes excessive activity, there is a state similar to euphoria. Its signs are manifested in constant social fear, therefore, are confirmed by the inability to share with other people their attitude to food.
Also, the symptoms of anorexia include physical disorders such as:
- menstrual irregularities;
- cardiac arrhythmia;
- muscle cramps;
- chronic fatigue;
- algodysmenorrhea.
Most often, a person's self-esteem depends on the weight, but weight assessment is not always objective. Weight loss is always perceived as a victory, the achievement of goals. And weight gain is characterized by a lack of self-control. This situation persists until the last stage of the disease. Self-medication and prescribing medications and hormonal drugs can be hazardous to he alth. Such cases are no longer treatable.
How do pregnancy symptoms of anorexia manifest?
Anorexia during pregnancy
For women who had previously experienced anorexia, including bulimia in the form of an eating disorder, the desire to become pregnant became an insurmountable difficulty. The reason for this situation is the fact that just such patients prefer artificial insemination more often than others, which, of course, affects the further reproductive function. Meanwhile, most often pregnancy appears with anorexia unplanned, therefore, not in all casesThis disease is characterized by infertility. With malnutrition during pregnancy, a miscarriage can occur, there is a risk of developing gestational diabetes - a pathology that comes after childbirth, which is chronic and is characterized by high blood glucose levels.
During pregnancy, he althy women gain about 10-13 kg in weight, which is required to ensure the quality development of the child's body. In many cases, pregnant women can consume approximately 2000 kcal per day, and in the last trimester - about 2200 kcal.
When anorexia is detected, it is very difficult to come to terms with such facts. As a result of a significantly reduced body mass index in a pregnant woman, there is a risk of having a child with a small weight, which will further aggravate the situation if a woman smokes. Also in such cases, there is a risk of premature birth.
Symptoms and signs of anorexia should be detected in a timely manner.
Diagnosis
Basically, the diagnosis of anorexia is based on a comparison of general symptoms and the following signs:
- changes accompanying the condition that occurred before the age of 25 (including based on gender);
- body weight loss of 25 percent or more of the indicators taken as a starting point for diagnosis;
- absence of any organ diseases that can act as the main reason for weight loss;
- unnatural eating habits and self-weight assessment;
- availability orthe absence of mental illness that accompanies this disease;
- presence of lanugo (appearance of very fine hair on the body);
- amenorrhea;
- bulimia incidents;
- bradycardia (a condition in which the heart rate reaches 60 beats per minute or less);
- vomiting (sometimes specially induced).
As noted, the causes, symptoms of anorexia and treatment are closely related.
Treatment
Treatment of this disease in some cases, it is desirable to start without reaching the stages of the appearance of serious forms of complications, which will lead to faster recovery, often even at a spontaneous level.
However, in many cases, the disease is not recognized by patients, therefore, no one seeks help. Severe forms imply the need for complex treatment, it can be both inpatient treatment and drug therapy and psychotherapy (including for all members of the patient's family). Among other things, treatment occurs with a normal diet, during which the caloric content of the food taken by the patient gradually increases.
During the first treatment stage, improvement occurs when the somatic condition is restored, which in turn suspends the process of weight loss and the threat to life is eliminated, the patient is removed from cachexia.
During the next, second stage, attention is paid to treatment with the use of drugs in combination with the method of psychotherapy with a one-time distraction of the patient from his existingfixation on weight and appearance. They are working on the appearance of self-confidence in him, the recognition of himself and the surrounding reality.
Relapse
Relapse in anorexia is a very common manifestation, so it is necessary to undergo several courses of therapy at once. A fairly rare side effect of treatment is being overweight or obese.
With symptoms of anorexia disease, a systematic approach to diagnosis and treatment is required, and simultaneous consultation of several specialists may be necessary: a neurologist, psychologist, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, oncologist.
