An increase of 36% in symptoms associated with eating disorders and a boom in hospitalizations, increased by 48%, in the pandemic period: it is the domino effect that Covid has generated in patients with eating disorders including bulimia, anorexia nervosa and other food-related pathologies. These are the data that emerged from a study published byInternational Journal of Eating Disorder, a review of 53 studies conducted on the topic and which involved a total of over 36 thousand patients, with an average age of 24 years, of which over 90% were women.
The alteration of eating habits - from the desire to 'hoard' more food for fear of famine linked to the lockdown, to poorly structured meals, to significant weight gains - was the tip of the iceberg of a psycho-emotional fragility remained submerged: feelings of strong loneliness, abandonment and separation from the real context, worsening of mood, suicidal ideas, acts of self-harm, increased visits to the emergency room. The data from this international study were anticipated and confirmed by a multicenter survey conducted in Italy on people with eating disorders published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2021.
"We could define it as a 'hunger for food and the soul', an illness of the body and mind which confirms the close relationship between
brain and intestine, to which patients with eating disorders who are more exposed to depression and anxiety are more sensitive than the general population - he explains Matteo Balestrieri, co-president of the Sinpf and full professor of psychiatry at the University of Udine -. To aggravate the mental and metabolic health picture, there is also the difficulty in accessing treatment, i remote contacts with referring doctors, uncertainties related to the pandemic, changes in normal routine, the loss of structural fixed points and social contacts, the negative influence of the media".
"The data emerging from this international study are also confirmed in Italy, especially affecting young people - specifies Claudio Mencacci, co-president of the Sinpf and emeritus director of neurosciences and mental health at the ASST Fatebenefratelli-Sacco in Milan -. A recent multicenter survey conducted in Italy on people with eating disorders, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in 2021, highlighted that during the lockdown there was a significant increase in anxiety (+20%), depression (+20%), post-traumatic symptoms (+16%), panic (+30%) and insomnia (+18%). After the first acute phase of the pandemic (the lockdown) most of these symptoms remained at the same level, while anxiety levels increased further (+10%) testifying to a general malaise and insecurity generated by the pandemic".
"Altered relationship with food, psychological distress, limitation of access to treatment - concludes Balestrieri - are a dramatic 'trinomial' for patients with eating disorders. We saw it every day in 'real life', today it is confirmed by studies: The
pandemic context, isolation, the loss of fixed points, the uncertainty of the future have exacerbated the fragility of this class of patients which in everyday life has translated into the search for more food, as a compensatory and rewarding act for the inability to accept and manage the sudden change in routine and the consequences that Covid has generated".
COVID AND TEENAGERS: INCREASED MENTAL DISCOMFORT
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