http://parentcenter.babycenter.com/204_childhood-anxiety-may-make-anorexia-worse\
_5232605.pc

Childhood anxiety may make anorexia worse

Fri, May 16, 2008 (Reuters Health) — Anorexic women with a history of
childhood anxiety may have particularly severe symptoms of the eating
disorder, a study suggests.

It's known that anxiety disorders, like social phobia and obsessive
compulsive disorder, are far more common among people with anorexia
than in the general population. Often, these anxiety disorders appear
before the eating disorder does.

In the new study, published in the International Journal of Eating
Disorders, researchers looked at whether a history of childhood
"overanxious disorder" was related to the severity of women's anorexia.

Dr. Cynthia M. Bulik, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, and colleagues found that of 637 women with anorexia, 39 percent
reported symptoms of childhood overanxious disorder. In nearly all
cases, those symptoms arose before the onset of their anorexia.

In general, the researchers found, women with a history of childhood
anxiety exhibited "more extreme personality traits" and attitudes —
like perfectionism and obsessive tendencies related to food — than
women without a history of early anxiety disorders.

They were also more likely to purge, by vomiting or abusing laxatives,
in addition to strictly limiting their food intake.

According to Bulik's team, childhood anxiety disorders "may represent
one entree" into anorexia. This, they say, underscores the importance
of recognizing and treating these conditions early on.