Do anorectics get well? Current research and future needs.

The authors review data from 12 major outcome studies of anorexia nervosa published in the 15 years since the last review article of Ziolko (1966). Across the 12 studies the mortality rate from self-starvation was 6%. On follow-up, well over half of the subjects continued to have eating difficulties, and close to half showed other signs of psychiatric impairment. In nonsymptomatic areas of adjustment there was a striking contrast between the 90% who were successfully employed and the 54% who made some minimal form of marital or social adjustment. The authors present a series of recommendations about the form and content of future research in the field.