Socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with diagnoses of eating disorder in a university hospital in Istanbul.

OBJECTIVE

This paper reports the first-ever description of a clinical eating disorder population from Turkey. The aim of this study was to examine the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of individuals with diagnosis of eating disorders (IDED) referred to a university psychiatry clinic in Istanbul between 2003 and 2009.

METHOD

The diagnoses and subtype of 111 IDEDs, the referral type to the hospital, setting of treatment, and state of involuntary hospitalization were evaluated by interview and semi-structured questionnaire.

RESULTS

The clinical sample included 64 individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN), 38 with bulimia nervosa (BN), and 9 with eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS), including only one male. Younger individuals and those with a lower BMI were significantly more likely to be family referred and hospitalized involuntarily.

DISCUSSION

The overall socio-demographic features of the sample are generally consistent with data collected in other communities. However, aspects of the clinical features, referral types of eating disorders and subtypes exhibit some characteristics peculiar to our sample.