Clinical manifestations and symptoms of food disorders

Food disorders, also known as ingestion disorders, include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, xenophagia and so on, so their clinical manifestation symptoms are different. 1. Anorexia nervosa: clinically more common, its clinical symptoms include intentional restriction of energy intake, fear of weight gain or fatness, body image disorder (distorted perception of self-body image), neuroendocrine changes (amenorrhea in females, sexual dysfunction in males, etc.), nutritional deficiencies and metabolic disorders, psychiatric symptoms (depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms), and so on. 2. Bulimia Nervosa: Patients may have repeated episodes of heavy eating, and it is difficult to control the desire to eat, often until they have unbearable abdominal distension. However, the patient is worried about his/her weight gain, so he/she often induces compensatory behaviors such as self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, and intermittent eating. Patients’ overeating and compensatory behaviors can easily cause water and electrolyte disorders. 3. Binge eating disorder: patients have cycles of recurrent episodes of overeating, episodes of eating can not be controlled, the patient has obesity, so there are often high blood pressure, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperglycemia and so on. Patients can also have symptoms of anxiety and depression, so they may have suicidal ideation. Often combined with gambling disorder, substance abuse disorder and so on. 4. Ectophagia: mainly occurs in infants and young children. The children often eat non-nutritive substances, such as mortar, paper, paint, hair, dirt, sand, stones and so on. Anemia, diarrhea, constipation, parasitic infections and other complications are common. If the above eating disorders occur, you need to go to the hospital for examination and treatment in time to avoid delaying the condition.