Adjacent Words

anorexia nervosa definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: (psychiatry) a psychological disorder characterized by somatic delusions that you are too fat despite being emaciated

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: New Latin, nervous anorexia Date: 1873 a serious disorder in eating behavior primarily of young women in their teens and early twenties that is characterized especially by a pathological fear of weight gain leading to faulty eating patterns, malnutrition, and usually excessive weight loss

Britannica Concise

Extreme emaciation caused by emotional or psychological aversion to eating (anorexia), mostly in young women who believe they are fat and must lose weight. They do not feel hungry. Extreme cases involve schizophrenic delusions. Weight may drop to half of normal. No causative organic defects are known. Usual symptoms are digestive disturbances, with spontaneous vomiting (compulsive self-induced vomiting is called bulimia), and amenorrhea. Treatment, seldom straightforward, requires cooperation among patient, physician, and psychiatrist.