ABSTRACT
Anorexia nervosa is an eating disorder with the following symptom profile: refusal to maintain a normal body weight, resulting in emaciation; intense fear of weight gain or fatness; disturbance of body image and/or denial of the seriousness of low body weight; and amenorrhea (absence of menstrual cycle) in females (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Two types of anorexia nervosa have been described: the restricting type, in which the person controls weight by extreme restriction of food intake and exercise, and the binge eating/purging type, in which the person engages in binge eating or purging, usually in addition to restrictive eating and exercise.
