ABSTRACT
The eating disorders have high rates of medical comorbidity. AN has the highest premature mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder. Untreated, after 20 years, the mortality rate is 18-20% (9). Since the typical patient falls ill in midadolescence, by age 35 one-fifth of untreated patients have died. Approximately two-thirds of the deaths are due to cardiac or renal complications and about one-third due to suicide. Less is known about the mortality for BN, but after 15-20 years 5% may have died (10). The premature mortality rate for BED is poorly understood, but since most patients are obese, the medical risks are probably those associated with obesity. These risks include type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular disease, stroke, sleep apnea, gallbladder disease, hyperuricemia and gout, and osteoarthritis. Although BED was described in 1959 (11), studies specific to the complication of BED are only now being undertaken; the most work has been done on the relationship between BED and diabetes mellitus. Although the night eating syndrome was described by Stunkard nearly 50 years ago (12), it is
only recently that the physiological concomitants of this condition have been investigated.
