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- Anorexia nervosa is a serious eating disorder involving insufficient energy intake, low weight or poor growth, an intense fear of weight gain and behaviour that works against recovery.
- Someone can be seriously medically unwell without looking extremely thin; rapid weight loss and physical instability are especially important in assessment.
- It is not a choice, vanity or a phase. Biology, psychological vulnerability and environment interact.
- Early specialist treatment improves the chance of recovery and combines medical monitoring, nutritional recovery and psychological treatment.
- For children and young people, active involvement of parents or carers is usually important and is not intended to assign blame.
- Rapidly increasing food intake without guidance during severe malnutrition can cause dangerous shifts in electrolytes; nutritional recovery then needs medical supervision.
- Bradycardia (a slow heart rate), fainting, severe dehydration, sudden confusion, vomiting blood, a seizure or suicide risk is an emergency.
- Full recovery is possible, but often takes time, and signs of relapse need early action.
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