ABSTRACT
Eating disorders are life-threatening disorders with a high risk of death. Up to 20" of patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) die prematurely as a result of their illness. While suicide is a major cause of these deaths, a second significant cause is cardiac arrest. Changes in the autonomic function in the cardiovascular system can be assessed from various aspects of the electrocardiogram (ECG). A possible alternative method for assessing cardiac health in emergency department (ED) patients is by assessing the patterns of cardiac activity. Few studies have examined heart rate variability (HRV) in anorexic patients using nonlinear methods. The reduced values of the scaling exponent, a, from detrended fluctuation analysis in anorexic patients compared to controls is also consistent with reduced HRV. Eating-disorder patients in general tend to be quite secretive if not dishonest about their food- and exercise-related behaviors and the extent of these.
