Nutritional status and immunocompetence in eating disorders. A comparative study.

Nutritional status and immunocompetence were evaluated in 26 patients suffering from anorexia nervosa (AN) (n = 16) or bulimia nervosa (BN) (n = 10) in comparison with a control group (n = 22). Body mass index (BMI) was lower in all patients than in controls, AN patients having the lowest values. Slight leukopenia together with relative lymphocytosis was shown in both AN and BN. The CD4/CD8 ratio was low in all patients, but more so for BN patients, although cell-mediated immune function was impaired to the same extent for both eating disorders. The complement system appeared to be damaged in all the patients in comparison with controls. These results may mean that the nutritional status of both syndromes was different. Although anthropometric measurements in the BN group may suggest a more acceptable nutritional status, immunological parameters were shown to be depleted at the same level as the AN group and even more impaired when judged by the lower CD4/CD8 values.