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 Health & Beauty | March 2008 
Suicidal Anorexics: Determined to Die?
 Kathleen Kingsbury - Time.com
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| | Suicidal tendencies are strong in anorexics. | | |
The new findings, to be published this spring in the Journal of Affective Disorders, come during this year's National Eating Disorder Awareness Week. As many as 10 million women and one million men in the United States suffer from an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia, according to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA). Females between the ages of 15 and 24 are 12 times more likely to die from anorexia than all other causes of death, the NEDA reports.
And suicide is the primary cause of death for anorexics, greater even than starvation. Holm-Denoma stresses her research highlights how seriously treatment providers must take suicide risks amongst those suffering from eating disorders. "The likelihood of whether a patient wants to lethally hurt herself must be assessed right away," Holm-Denoma says, adding, "Addressing psychiatric needs must be paramount."
For the families of anorexics, Holm-Denoma's research only affirms their worst fears. One of the biggest frustrations these families face when their loved one is diagnosed with anorexia is how they can obtain affordable psychiatric help. Insurers rarely pick up the bill. Most health plans argue that eating disorders require mental health treatment not covered by most policies and therefore refuse to pay for long-term care.
In the direst cases, health plans will often cover a brief hospitalization to stabilize a patient's weight. But once she begins to gain weight again, she will be sent home. "The biological crisis may have passed," says Barbara Anthony, a Boston-based lawyer and executive director of Health Law Advocates, an organization that aids families. "But hospitals and health plans have done little to provide these patients with the mental health care they desperately need."
Meanwhile, costs related to in-patient treatment for an eating disorder can range from $25,000 to $30,000 a month. Many families are forced to take out second mortgages or deplete savings. Such situations are tragic, Holm-Denoma says. "Anorexia is one of the most serious psychiatric diseases our society faces," she says. "Our work shows even further that more needs to be done to prevent it." |
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