Girls with anxiety could be at greater risk of eating disorders

Teenage girls who experience clinical levels of anxiety could be at greater risk of eating disorders, according to researchers at UCL and University of Bristol. The study, published today in European Eating Disorders Review , looked at anxiety disorder pathology and engagement with severe levels of fasting (not eating for an entire day) in 2,406 teenage girls of Bristol's Children of the 90s study. Data collected at three time points between the ages of 13 and 18 revealed that the risk of regular fasting in girls who met criteria for an anxiety disorder two years earlier was twice that of girls who did not have an anxiety disorder, even after statistical adjustment for other factors known to increase risk of disordered eating behaviour. Fasting in turn was predictive of anorexia nervosa development in the sample, supporting the possibility that anxiety increases risk of early symptoms of eating disorder syndromes. It is estimated that up to 1.5 million people in the UK have some kind of eating disorder though currently there is not enough research to reveal the true prevalence. This new study is one of a portfolio of work, co-led by principal investigator Dr Nadia Micali from UCL, that uses data from the leading Bristol-based health study, Children of the 90s, to predict who might be at risk - which will help direct prevention efforts.