Eating Disorders Surged Among Adolescents in Pandemic

Doctors report steep increases in both hospitalization and outpatient visits, with children coming in sicker than ever

By Sumathi Reddy of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"Experts across the country who treat eating disorders in adolescents and young adults say they are seeing unprecedented demand for treatment that arose during the pandemic. Inpatient units have doubled or tripled capacity, wait lists for residential programs and outpatient services are months long, and the patients coming in are sicker than ever.

Experts say they have seen the biggest increase during the past year in anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder where people deprive themselves of food. Other disorders being seen include bulimia nervosa, where people binge on food and then try to get rid of it with laxatives or vomiting, and binge-eating disorder, where people consume excessive amounts of food in a short period.

Tracy Richmond, director of the eating-disorder program at Boston Children’s Hospital, recently finished a study accepted for publication in the Journal of Adolescent Health showing hospitalization rates of eating-disorder patients at Boston Children’s more than tripled in the pandemic, with the inpatient numbers rising from three or four to more than 10 and as many as 16 at a time. Demand for outpatient treatment also has risen sharply, from an average of six case reviews a week to as many as 23."

"Dr. Richmond said preliminary data she has collected from 14 eating-disorder treatment centers nationwide indicate hospitalizations at least doubled during the pandemic."

"Eating Recovery Center, a private network of 30 centers in seven states, says it received about 2,000 more new-patient calls in the first two months of 2021, a 90% increase over the same period in 2020."