ABSTRACT
While all eating disorders need to be taken seriously, some patients do, in fact, turn out to be much more ill than others. The symptoms of anorexia nervosa are remarkably consistent from patient to patient, as are those of bulimia nervosa. Body mass index (BMI) is a kind of shorthand way of expressing how seriously underweight, and thus how physically vulnerable, a patient with anorexia nervosa is likely to be. BMI is a person’s weight (in kilograms) divided by his or her height (in metres) squared. A normal or average BMI is around 20, with 15 considered seriously underweight, 25–30 overweight, and 30+ obese. One of the important keys to a good and helpful assessment is the taking of a careful history. The patient may be in no mood to give a personal history at the point of referral, and the family also may feel desperate and that all this talking and answering questions is just a waste of time.
