[Anorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder in a young Russian immigrant]

Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric disorder characterized by excessive dieting, severe weight loss, disturbed body image and inexplicable fear of gaining weight. It afflicts mainly upper class women of developed countries. We present a 16-year-old recent immigrant from Russia, where she had developed anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression. The management of this patient is presented in the light of the sociocultural theory of the pathogenesis of anorexia nervosa and the clinical link between eating disorders and depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders.