A study of over 36,000 patients attests to the close combination of eating disorders and mental illness. Italians, especially young people, are also at risk
Increase in symptoms associated with eating disorders (+ 36%) and boom in hospitalizations, increased by 48%, in a pandemic period: the domino effect that Covid has generated in patients with bulimia, anorexia nervosa and other food-related diseases. These are the data that emerged from a study published onInternational Journal of Eating Disorder
, a review of 53 researches conducted on the subject which involved a total of over 36,000 patients, with an average age of 24, of which over 90% were women. The alteration of eating habits – from the desire to hoard more food for fear of famine linked to the lockdown, to poorly structured meals, to significant weight gains – has been the tip of the iceberg of a psycho-emotional fragility remained submerged: feelings of strong loneliness, abandonment and removal from the real context, worsening of mood, suicidal ideas, acts of self-harm, greater access to the emergency room.
The survey in Italy
The data of this international study were anticipated and confirmed by a multicentre survey, conducted in Italy on people with eating disorders and published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2021. We could define it as a “hunger for food and for the soul”, a physical and mental illness that confirms the close relationship between the brain and the intestinewhich patients with eating disorders are most exposed to depression and anxiety they are more sensitive than the general population – he explains Matteo Balestrieri, co-president of the Sinpf (Society of Neuropsychopharmacology) and full professor of Psychiatry at the University of Udine -. To aggravate the picture of mental and metabolic health there are also difficulties in accessing care, remote contacts with referring doctors, uncertainties related to the pandemic, changes in normal routine, the loss of fixed points and social contactsthe negative influence of the media.
Anxiety and depression
The data that emerged from this international study are also confirmed in Italy, especially for young people – he adds Claudio Mencacci, co-president of the Sinpf and emeritus director of Neuroscience and mental health at the ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan -. The multicentre survey conducted in Italy on people with eating disorders in 2021 showed that during the lockdown I was there a significant increase in anxiety (+ 20%), depression (+ 20%), post-traumatic symptoms (+ 16%), panic (+ 30%) and insomnia (+ 18%). After the first acute phase of the pandemic (the lockdown), most of these symptoms remained at the same level, while anxiety levels increased further (+ 10%), reflecting a general malaise and insecurity generated by the pandemic. Altered relationship with food, mental illness, limitation of access to treatment – concludes Balestrieri – are a dramatic trinomial for patients with eating disorders. The pandemic context, the isolation, the uncertainty of the future have exacerbated the frailties of this class of patients which in everyday life have resulted in the search for more food.
May 3, 2022 (change May 3, 2022 | 10:29)
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