[The differential diagnosis of anorexia nervosa. Coincidence of somatic disease and psychogenic emaciation (author's transl)].

Three female patients with cachexia are reported in whom a psychogenic emaciation (anorexia nervosa) had been assumed. The postpubertal onset of the disease, deliberate limitation of diet, vomiting and subsequent emaciation and--in 2 patients--amenorrhea, as well as demonstrable experience of conflict supported this. The disease ran a lethal course. Autopsy revealed serious somatic diseases (stenosis of the ileum in two cases and brain tumor in one); their symptoms had been largely overlapped by those of anorexia nervosa.