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. 2019 Oct 28;11(11):2593.
doi: 10.3390/nu11112593.

Clinical Characteristics of Inpatients with Childhood vs. Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

Charlotte Jaite  1 , Katharina Bühren  2 , Brigitte Dahmen  3 , Astrid Dempfle  4 , Katja Becker  5   6 , Christoph U Correll  7   8   9 , Karin M Egberts  10 , Stefan Ehrlich  11 , Christian Fleischhaker  12 , Alexander von Gontard  13 , Freia Hahn  14 , David Kolar  15 , Michael Kaess  16   17 , Tanja Legenbauer  18 , Tobias J Renner  19 , Ulrike Schulze  20 , Judith Sinzig  21 , Ellen Thomae  22 , Linda Weber  23 , Ida Wessing  24 , Gisela Antony  25 , Johannes Hebebrand  26 , Manuel Föcker  27   28 , Beate Herpertz-Dahlmann  29
Affiliations

Clinical Characteristics of Inpatients with Childhood vs. Adolescent Anorexia Nervosa

Charlotte Jaite et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

We aimed to compare the clinical data at first presentation to inpatient treatment of children (<14 years) vs. adolescents (≥14 years) with anorexia nervosa (AN), focusing on duration of illness before hospital admission and body mass index (BMI) at admission and discharge, proven predictors of the outcomes of adolescent AN. Clinical data at first admission and at discharge in 289 inpatients with AN (children: n = 72; adolescents: n = 217) from a German multicenter, web-based registry for consecutively enrolled patients with childhood and adolescent AN were analyzed. Inclusion criteria were a maximum age of 18 years, first inpatient treatment due to AN, and a BMI <10th BMI percentile at admission. Compared to adolescents, children with AN had a shorter duration of illness before admission (median: 6.0 months vs. 8.0 months, p = 0.004) and higher BMI percentiles at admission (median: 0.7 vs. 0.2, p = 0.004) as well as at discharge (median: 19.3 vs. 15.1, p = 0.011). Thus, in our study, children with AN exhibited clinical characteristics that have been associated with better outcomes, including higher admission and discharge BMI percentile. Future studies should examine whether these factors are actually associated with positive long-term outcomes in children.

Keywords: BMI; adolescents; anorexia nervosa; children; clinical characteristics; outcome.

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Conflict of interest statement

C.U.C. has been a consultant and/or advisor to or has received honoraria from: Alkermes, Allergan, Angelini, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Gedeon Richter, Gerson Lehrman Group, Indivior, IntraCellular Therapies, Janssen/J&J, LB Pharma, Lundbeck, MedAvante-ProPhase, Medscape, Merck, Neurocrine, Noven, Otsuka, Pfizer, Recordati, Rovi, Servier, Sumitomo Dainippon, Sunovion, Supernus, Takeda, and Teva. He has provided expert testimony for Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen, and Otsuka. He served on a Data Safety Monitoring Board for Boehringer-Ingelheim, Lundbeck, Rovi, Supernus, and Teva. He received royalties from UpToDate and grant support from Janssen and Takeda. He is also a shareholder of LB Pharma. B.H.-D. has received speaker’s fee from Ferring. The other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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