Mortality in anorexia nervosa.

OBJECTIVE

The author's goal was to shed light on the debate regarding the mortality rate over time associated with anorexia nervosa.

METHOD

He conducted a meta-analytic study using weighted linear regression to combine crude mortality proportions from 42 published studies to estimate the mortality associated with anorexia nervosa over time.

RESULTS

The crude rate of mortality due to all causes of death for subjects with anorexia nervosa in these studies was 5.9% (178 deaths in 3,006 subjects). The aggregate mortality rate was estimated to be 0.56% per year, or approximately 5.6% per decade.

CONCLUSIONS

The aggregate estimated mortality rate for subjects with anorexia nervosa is substantially greater than that reported for female psychiatric inpatients and for the general population.