Abstract
The question of the specificity of anorexia nervosa is at present unsettled. Mayer-Gross et al. (8) describe it as a syndrome with its own particular psycho-physical characteristics, and others have drawn attention to consistencies in family history, personality and symptoms in series of cases (3, 10). But no statistically controlled study has confirmed its specificity, indeed the one such study of recent years, reported by Kay (6) and Kay and Leigh (7), concluded that there is no specific anorexia nervosa, that the label covers psychogenic anorexia occurring in a wide variety of psychiatric settings. This was a retrospective survey of a series of 37 patients diagnosed as suffering from anorexia nervosa in the past. It is possible that the lack of specificity might have been due to the imprecise definition implicit in such a sampling procedure. Although the study failed to demonstrate a specific anorexia nervosa, it did not finally refute the existence of such an entity.
Keywords
Anorexia nervosaPsychogenic diseaseAnorexiaPsychologyPsychiatryClinical psychologyMedicineEating disordersInternal medicine
MeSH Terms
Anorexia NervosaHumansSyndrome
Affiliated Institutions
Related Publications
Genome-wide association study identifies eight risk loci and implicates metabo-psychiatric origins for anorexia nervosa
Characterized primarily by a low body-mass index, anorexia nervosa is a complex and serious illness<sup>1</sup>, affecting 0.9-4% of women and 0.3% of men<sup>2-4</sup>, with tw...
[Atyptical forms of anorexia nervosa].
The paper is concerned with a description of a special form of nervous anorexia related to the presence of vomitophobia. The disease appears on the background of a somatogenic a...
Development and validation of a multidimensional eating disorder inventory for anorexia nervosa and bulimia
The development and validation of a new measure, the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) is described. The EDI is a 64 item, self-report, multiscale measure designed for the assessm...
Meniere's Disease and Fibrositis Syndrome (Psychogenic Rheumatism): Relationship in Audiometric and Nystagmographic Results
A prospective neuro-otological study concerning 30 cases of fibrositis syndrome (psychogenic rheumatism, PR) and 30 age-matched normal controls was made and a retrospective stud...
Influences on Child Eating and Weight Development from a Behavioral Genetics Perspective
Childhood obesity is a strong risk factor for associated comorbidities such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and orthopedic abnormalities in youth and its increasing ...
Publication Info
- Year
- 1963
- Type
- article
- Volume
- 109
- Issue
- 461
- Pages
- 470-479
- Citations
- 140
- Access
- Closed
External Links
Social Impact
Altmetric
PlumX Metrics
Social media, news, blog, policy document mentions
Citation Metrics
140
OpenAlex
2
Influential
111
CrossRef
Cite This
Arthur King
(1963).
Primary and Secondary Anorexia Nervosa Syndromes.
The British Journal of Psychiatry
, 109
(461)
, 470-479.
https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.109.461.470
Identifiers
- DOI
- 10.1192/bjp.109.461.470
- PMID
- 14032813