Psychiatrists have warned of a “tsunami” of eating disorder patients amid data showing soaring numbers of people experiencing anorexia and bulimia in England during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Agnes Ayton, the chair of the Eating Disorder Faculty at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said the number of people experiencing problems had risen sharply, with conditions such as anorexia thriving in the isolation of lockdown.
“We expect the tsunami [of patients] is still coming. We don’t think it has been and gone,” she said.
She also said that in Oxford, where she works, about 20 percent of people admitted were usually urgent referrals, but this proportion had shot up to 80 percent.
Eating disorders were rising due to people feeling out of control, and that they also thrived in the isolation accompanying the pandemic lockdowns, Ayton said.
She also said there were “unhelpful” messages around “weight loss and exercise” targeted at those with obesity, “but triggering to those with existing difficulties.”
“I think social isolation seems to have a major effect on people’s mental health. Not just eating disorders, but also anxiety and depression and alcohol use. I suppose to some extent anxiety and eating disorders are closely linked, so there is that,” she added.
It was “a real worry,” Ayton said, adding that the huge rise in people with such a low body mass index that they need urgent help could be due to a reluctance to come forward early enough.
“Some people don’t want to see their GP [general practitioner] or they don’t feel they deserve to come forward as they think that other people with COVID are more deserving,” she said.
Private facilities have also seen a rise in people coming forward.
Lorna Richards, a psychiatrist specializing in adult eating disorders at the Priory Group, ascribed the rise in such disorders to several factors, including “fear and uncertainty, fueling anxiety symptoms” and changes to people’s routine and home lives.
“There has also been widespread concern [among the general population] about lack of physical activity, and about weight gain during periods of lockdown, which has seen the nation both dieting and exercising, en masse,” she said.
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