(During the first 6 months of the pandemic, cases of eating disorders increased by 40% compared to the first 6 months of 2019: 230,458 new cases were detected in the first half of 2020 compared to 163,547 in the first half of 2019. relating to a survey concluded in February 2021, based on the intersection of different information flows analyzed by the Cineca inter-university Consortium. It emerges from the presented today on the occasion of the National Day of the Lilac Ribbon. The map of the Istituto Superiore di Healthcare of over 100 accredited centers.
The global care burden of new cases and those in treatment was also detected in 2020 in 2,398,749 patients, a figure "underestimated since there is a large share of patients who do not arrive for treatment".
The data from the survey, presented during a round table at the Museum of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, also reveal a further lowering of the age of onset: 30% of those who suffer from these disorders are under 14 years of age and a greater prevalence in the male population (in the range between 12 and 17 years includes 10%).
The ISS map dedicated to services on eating disorders is evolving, to date there are 108 accredited structures (they were 91 a few weeks ago) throughout the national territory (101 of the NHS and 7 of the accredited private sector): 55 centers in the North (of which 19 in Emilia Romagna), 18 in Central Italy and 35 in the South and Islands.
"Facilitating the request for help and providing information on assistance are the objectives of the mapping of the centers - explains Roberta Pacifici, head of the National Center for Addiction and Doping of the ISS - after having surveyed the structures of the NHS, the Institute has also begun to map the accredited private centers, noting a strong impact and involvement on these eating disorders ".
Almost 9,000 users (8,947) are in charge of 65% of the centers surveyed, mainly women 90% compared to 10% of men.
58% are between 13 and 25 years old, 7% less than 12. Anorexia nervosa is represented in 36.2% of cases, bulimia nervosa in 17.9% and binge eating disorder in 12.4 %.
1,099 professionals work in the centers, all trained: mainly psychologists (21%), child psychiatrists or neuropsychiatrists (17%), nurses (14%) and dieticians (11%).
Eating disorders, hospitalizations due to pandemic
Sinpia tripled, onset ever earlier, severe cases even at 11 years
Hospital admissions for causes related to eating disorders tripled between 2019 and 2021 due to the pandemic, with a trend in further increase in this beginning of 2022 and an age of onset of these pathologies which has dropped to 11-13 years.
This is the alarm launched by Sinpia - Italian Society of Child and Adolescent Neuropsychiatry on the occasion of the National Day of the Lilac Ribbon, according to which among the effects of the Pandemic there is, among Italian adolescents and pre-adolescents, the greatest incidence of eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa,
During confinement and the pandemic, concerns about health and physical appearance were among the main factors in the onset of eating disorders among adolescents.
"The fear of infection by the virus - explains Dr. Rosamaria Siracusano, coordinator of the scientific section of Psychiatry of the Sinpia and Medical Director Uosd Child Neuropsychiatry AOU Federico II of Naples - has favored the feeling of loss of control which, in people with eating disorders, is often managed with increased dietary restrictions or other extreme weight control behaviors or binge eating episodes. "
The requests for hospitalization for eating disorders would be even greater, explains Prof. Elisa Maria Fazzi, president of Sinpia and director of the Neuropsychiatry of Childhood and Adolescence UO Asst Spedali Civili of Brescia, "since many, especially girls, not being able to be accepted in the wards due to lack of beds, they are supported in reality not specifically equipped, not receiving the appropriate treatment for their pathology for which the approach of the child neuropsychiatrist, who treats mind and body, is an integral and fundamental part especially in younger subjects.
