[How reliable is the diagnosis "anorexia nervosa"?]

A report is given on a 14-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy from a group of 83 patients who met the diagnostic criteria (MAS; DSM-III-R) for anorexia nervosa. The behavior therapy interventions did not have the expected effects in either child. On repetition diagnostic evaluations showed that the girl had esophageal achalasia within the scope of Turpin's syndrome (megaesophagus, bronchus deformation) and the boy Burkitt's lymphoma (malignant non-Hodgkins' lymphoma). The differential diagnostic and classification problems associated with the diagnosis anorexia nervosa are pointed out.