[Anorexia athletica's place in female sports athletes]

Abstract

This work analyzes the links between eating disorders and intensive exercise training and tries to define the anorexia athletica's place in this context. Through a review of the literature, we examined the arguments favoring the hypothesis of a "princeps" disorder, which would orientate girls towards some sports, and the arguments, which emphasize the capacity of some sports to lead to the apparition of these eating disorders. The description of a clinical case allows the evocation of the complexity of this relationship showing that intensive exercise training may be a facilitatory factor as well as a limitatory factor of the severity of the anorexia nervosa. In this situation, it seems interesting to use the anorexia athletica's concept to improve coach and doctor's vigilance around the young female athlete. Lastly, we propose to replace the concept of sport by "exercise practice" where the intensity, the sport "centration", the weight stress became risk factors and to define populations at risk (adolescents, females). Based on these data, prevention actions should be started in populations particularly exposed.