Am] Psychiatry 141:8, August 1984 989 Sexual Conflict and Eating Disorders in 27 Males

Twenty-seven anorectic and bulimic males and 142 anorectic and bulimic females treated on an eating disorders unit were compared. Significantly more male patients reported experiencing sexual isolation, sexual inactivity, and conflicted homosexuality. (AmJ Psychiatry 141:989-990, 1984) A norexia nervosa and bulimia, two eating disor-ders of strikingly increasing prevalence in recent years, are generally regarded as primarily affecting girls and women. It is estimated that males make up only 4%-14 % of the anorectic population (1, 2). The proportion of male bulimics has been studied less often but has been estimated as 0.4%-S % of the bulimic population in a university setting (3, 4). Because of the relative rarity of these disorders in males, less is known about the characteristics of boys and men afflicted with these disorders. The Eating Disorders Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital was established in 1981 to evaluate and treat anorectic and bulimic patients. During the unit’s first 2 years 27 males (8.9 % of patients seen) were diagnosed as being anorectic or bulimic. We report on the demographic and clinical data from all male patients evaluated during that time. METHOD We studied 13 anorectic and 14 bulimic male pa-tients who were evaluated on the unit. Anorectic males ranged in age from 16 to 32 years (mean=23.6 years), and bulimic males ranged in age from 13 to 41 years (mean=26.7 years). Four of the male patients (three anorectic and one bulimic) were below 19 years of age and one bulimic boy was below 16 years of age. Twenty-six patients were white and one was black. The control sample consisted of the first 142 female patients (SO anorectic and 92 bulimic) evaluated on th