Anorexia nervosa and the risk of complications in pregnancy
Findings from a retrospective population-based study demonstrated an association between severe eating disorder anorexia and a substantially increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome. Women diagnosed with anorexia nervosa are five times (500%) more likely, on average, to have a small baby for gestational age (SGA), according to a new, comprehensive study. The results presented at the 2022 ESHRE annual meeting also showed a substantially increased risk (298%) of preterm delivery and a more than threefold (341%) chance of placental abruption, when compared with mothers without anorexia. The analysis is based on data from more than 9 million women living in North America both with and without anorexia, a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by self-starvation and malnutrition. In presenting the data, Dr Michael Dahan of McGill University, Montreal, said that the incidence of newborn SGA in the anorexic group was ‘unexpected and striking’ when compared with the results for women o