A COMPARISON OF CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND TREATMENT FOR ANOREXIA IN BOTH MALE AND FEMALE TEENS

Regardless of the fact that anorexia affects both male and females, males are frequently underrepresented in research studies probably because of the perception that anorexia is a disease for women (Carlat and Camargo, 1997). When males are included in an analysis of eating disorders the study sample is often too small for analyses to be conducted separately. As a result, there are a contradictory and inconclusive finding of the clinical characteristics of males suffering from anorexia. Neumark-sztainer (2005) observed that nearly 1/3 of teenage boys and over ½ of teenage girls use weight control methods that are unhealthy. These behaviors include taking laxative, vomiting, smoking cigarettes, fasting and skipping meals. The study population included all patients that were seeking eating disorder treatment in the Department of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry for medical evaluation in Uppsala University Children’s Hospital who were suspected or diagnosed with anorexia for the time period 1999 to 2012.

The facility provides treatment for all teenagers aged less than eighteen years that were suspected or diagnosed with eating disorders (Welch, Ghaderi & Swenne, 2015). The sample size consisted of 664 adolescent patients with 58 being male patients that had been referred to the hospital and 606 being male patients who had been referred to the Department of Adolescent and Child Psychiatry for medical evaluation in Uppsala University Children’s Hospital. All the patients in the study group were carefully assessed at the initial contact by a medical doctor. All patients that had a BMI (body mass index) less than 17. This indicated that compared to female patients, male patients were more prone to losing weight drastically despite having same body mass index standard deviation at the initial assessment.

From the analysis of somatic commodity, 1% of the female patients were diagnosed with diabetes and 2. 4% of the girls were diagnosed with celiac disease while none of the male patients were diagnosed with neither celiac disease nor diabetes. The assessment of psychiatric commodity revealed that a higher proportion of male patients (6. 9%) compared to female patients (1%) had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) previously. The sampling technique used was snowball and word of mouth were used to acquire respondents (Monette, et. al 2011). A sample size of eight participants was obtained where only therapists who had an experience of 15 to 28 years operating with female and male teenagers with anorexia were included in the study. Questionnaires were administered to the target sample size and data entered into a computer program.

The data from the study were analyzed using descriptive statistics measurement. The researchers observed that this could be as a result of male patients’ resistant to the treatments. According to Bean, et. al (2008), compared to females patients male patients are stigmatized by eating disorders hence the resistance. Another reason according to the study could be that the therapists were inexperienced with male patients suffering from eating disorders as treatments for females with eating disorders were more frequent and the therapists were more experienced in female treatments. This research study reveals similar treatment approaches are amenable in both female and male patients and that multidisciplinary approach is the most effective method for treating eating disorders in both genders for adolescents. Carlat, D.