Lack of appetite is a condition in which the patient does not want to eat, has a decreased desire for food, or has a decreased sense of taste after eating food, and is usually seen for both physiological and pathological reasons.
Physiologic loss of appetite is mainly due to chronic irregular diet, starvation, and fasting, where food is stored in the stomach for too long due to decreased secretion of gastric acid.
Pathological loss of appetite is usually seen in chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, such as chronic gastritis, gastric ulcer, and gastric cancer, and in other diseases that cause loss of appetite due to decreased gastric function, such as cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis, and heart failure.
Lack of appetite is also seen as a result of anorexia nervosa and side effects of medications.
The symptoms of loss of appetite need to be adjusted to avoid serious complications due to decreased gastric acid secretion, and the primary disease needs to be treated in a timely manner.