A critical review of the extant literature on anorexia nervosa in males is presented, with the aim of comparing symptomatology in male versus female cases.
Extensive review of the literature reveals no current comprehensive article on past research addressing anorexia nervosa in males. Research specifically geared toward comparing the symptoms of male versus female anorectics is similarly lacking. This paper will conduct such a critical review.
Despite the fact that one of the earliest reported cases of anorexia nervosa (Morton, 1694) involved a male, this disorder is considered to occur almost exclusively in females. The existing research supports the preponderance of female cases with only a relatively small percentage of studies reporting data on anorexia nervosa in males. In fact, in the past, some authors have stated that primary anorexia nervosa is never found in males (Kidd & Wood, 1966; Selvini, 1971), while others (Dally, 1969) note the difficulty in diagnosing male anorectics when amenorrhea is relied upon as a critical diagnostic sign. Thus, while epidemiologic data support the notion that anorexia nervosa occurs primarily in females (95%, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-111; American Psychiatric Association, 1980), the lack of substantive data on anorexia nervosa in males has probably led to the under-or misdiagnos-