Outcome, recovery, relapse and mortality across six years in patients with clinical eating disorders

The study describes course and outcome over 6 years for adults with eating disorders. Special interest is paid to clinically critical events such as relapse and premature death. Seventy-seven per cent of the 30 prospectively studied patients had no eating disorder diagnosis after 6 years. Among the recovered patients, the total risk of relapse was 48%. The mortality was 17.8 times higher than expected. The overall pattern of results confirm earlier ones for anorexia nervosa and extend the limited database for bulimia nervosa. Of particular importance may be 1) that no patient in this sample suffered more than one major relapse and 2) that the risk for premature death may be twice as high among bulimic as among restricting patients.