Web Sites For Eating Disorders May Harm Patients

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Main Category: Eating Disorders
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry;  Mental Health;  Women's Health / Gynecology
Article Date: 10 Dec 2006 - 13:00 PDT

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People with eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia, may not benefit from web sites aimed at helping them - in fact, it is possible some of them may be unwittingly providing patients with tips on new ways of losing weight, say researchers from the USA.

You can read about this new study in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers identified two types of websites:

-- Pro-eating Disorder Web Sites
These are generally communities were people who have eating disorders talk about what they do.

-- Pro-recovery Web Sites
These are web sites which focus on recovering from an eating disorder. There are fewer of these types of web sites.

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate awareness and usage of the Pro-eating sites among adolescent people with eating disorders, and their parents, and to see whether visitors' health and quality of life were affects.

The researchers, from Stanford University, looked at 698 families of patients, aged 10-22, all of whom had eating disorders which had been diagnosed between 1997-2004. They discovered that patients who used pro-eating disorder web sites were much more likely to be ill for longer. 96% of patients using these sites said they acquired new methods for purging and losing weight. Surprisingly, 46.4% of patients visiting Pro-recovery web sites also learned new techniques for losing weight or purging.

Patients with anorexia do not only have to face the potentially dangerous physical health problems of being severely underweight, but also some life-threatening mental problems - a patient with anorexia is 56 times more likely to commit suicide, when compared to people who do not suffer from anorexia.

The Academy for Eating Disorders (USA) says targeted web sites should carry warnings.

"Surfing for Thinness: A Pilot Study of Pro-Eating Disorder Web Site Usage in Adolescents With Eating Disorders"
Jenny L. Wilson, BAa, Rebecka Peebles, MDa, Kristina K. Hardy, PhDb and Iris F. Litt, MDa
PEDIATRICS Vol. 118 No. 6 December 2006, pp. e1635-e1643
doi:10.1542/peds.2006-1133
Click here to view abstract online

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today
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