Background: There is a higher prevalence of eating disorders (ED) among adolescent females. These are less common in men and there are clinical differences between genders.
Aim: To describe the clinical features of adolescent males with ED.
Material and methods: Review of 38 medical records of male patients with ED seen in an ED Unit in Chile, between 2001 and 2009.
Results: Mean age at first medical visit was 14.4 ± 2.2 years. Symptoms appeared 9.5 ± 8.9 months prior to the first visit. Anorexia nervosa (AN) of the restricting type was diagnosed in 21 patients (55.2%), with a mean weight loss of 11.2 kg ± 9.4 kg. In 37% of patients, there was a past medical history of overweight. All patients either increased or maintained weight during follow up. Sixty three percent had a psychiatric co-morbidity at first visit. After 3 months of treatment, 82% of patients remained in the program.
Conclusions: There was a delay in diagnosis of ED in men. The high prevalence of AN found in this group is characteristic of patients recently diagnosed with ED. Overweight could be a precipitating factor. Nearly two thirds of male ED patients had a psychiatric comorbidity. This high prevalence may suggest a susceptibility to develop ED in males.