Does oestrogen protect the male brain too? A case of oestrogen withdrawal in a man reveals underlying dementia
✍ Scribed by Mari Jones-Ritson; Roger Bullock
- Book ID
- 101282781
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 54 KB
- Volume
- 15
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6230
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
which the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. A detailed interview was conducted with individuals scoring above 20 on the EAT.
Forty-one patients met the entry criteria, with ages ranging from 70 to 96. Thirty-seven (90%) were female. Five (12%) subjects scored more than 20 on the EAT (Table 1), but none had BITE scores more than 5. Ten patients (24%) had a BMI below 20, two (20%) of whom also had EAT scores over 20.
In a clinical interview, none of the ®ve patients with elevated EAT scores had body image distortion, but three of the ®ve had profound feelings of guilt and shame relating to what they perceived to be overeating.
We are unaware of other studies in which standardised eating disorder questionnaires such as EAT and BITE have been carried out on elderly people. Certain sections of the EAT may be inappropriate in this population, for example many elderly people cut their food into small pieces as a consequence of poor ®tting dentures. Another question frequently eliciting a positive response was ``I feel that food controls my life'', often pertaining to rigid meal regimes.
Importantly 24% of the subjects were underweight, and 12% had an EAT score of 20. Two of the underweight residents also had abnormal eating attitudes. It is clear, therefore, that abnormal eating attitudes are common in this group of individuals, particularly those who are underweight. Their characteristics were rather dierent to what would be expected in younger patients, with less bingeing or body image distortion, but profound feelings of guilt and shame regarding food consumption.