Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

Anorexia and bulimia nervosa are eating disorders very common among young adolescents, characterized by excessive concern about physical appearance, distorted body image, and fear of gaining weight. The purpose of this systematic review is to analyze the transition from adolescence to adulthood, to verify the evolution of the disorder, which comorbidities emerge, how many patients recover or fall back into the follow-up process. For the literature search, 4 databases were used: PubMed, PsycInfo, Scopus, and Embase. Two research strings were developed, one for quantitative outcomes such as recovery/persistence, relapse, and remission and one for the other outcomes: organic, psychiatric, and social comorbidities. A total of 8043 articles emerged from the databases consulted: 3601 duplicates were eliminated, obtaining 4442 studies. After an initial screening based on titles and abstracts, 506 studies were reviewed for inclusion, and 16 articles were included after full-text revision. A meta-analysis describing the quantitative results was developed on suitable articles, and a narrative synthesis was performed for the remaining qualitative aspects. In the light of our results we can affirm that: eating disorders are chronic and complex, they are commoner in the female gender, they persist with a frequency of 40% until early adulthood, with a tendency to relapse during the first year of illness; they often complicate with the insurgence of anxiety disorders and major depressive disorders. This disorders also reduce the autonomy of the individual, who can experience difficulty in affirming their independence from the family.