Mental health is at the center of the social debate, so much so that political leaders have committed to implementing national and regional plans to try to stop the ever-increasing increase in people for whom living causes pain in the soul. But among the figures that everyone handles, that population group that society must protect above all is relegated: children and adolescents. And in these, the increase in mental conditions has overwhelmed existing resources. Hospitals literally cannot cope with the tens of thousands of minors with mental health problems and in many cases they have had to increase the number of beds by creating new spaces to care for them.
“We are seeing a tremendous boom in children and adolescents and we are beginning to be overwhelmed. We need more resources for care and prevention, to normalize it in schools and institutes so that people lose the fear of asking for help,” explains Ángel Luis Montejo González, psychiatrist at the University Hospital of Salamanca.
This was revealed at the XXVI National Congress of Psychiatry, held a few days ago in Salamanca and which brought together more than 1,500 professionals, in which they warned of the "brutal" increase in eating disorders (ED), which affect every day more to a greater number of adolescents and young people (especially women), and even to younger children. “We are finding girls between 10 and 12 years old in consultations with anorexia, bulimia or uncontrolled binge eating,” says Francisco J. Vaz Leal, professor of Psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Extremadura. (University Hospital of Badajoz).
According to the data presented at the aforementioned meeting, the figures used for the prevalence of these disorders far exceed 6%: with respect to anorexia nervosa, they are around 1.5% in women and 0.2% in women. % in men. For bulimia nervosa, the prevalence rates are 1.9% and 0.6%, respectively. And for binge eating disorder, the figures would be about 2.8% for women and 1% in the case of men. Behind these percentages are thousands of adolescents and young people. And now, children too.
Data that psychiatrists themselves know are undervalued, because the majority of patients hide it and do not access the health system. "These are worrying figures, even more so when we consider that it is the tip of the iceberg, and even more so if we take into account that eating disorders tend to persist over time and have a great tendency to recur and be associated with other problems." psychiatric hospitals,” says Vaz Leal.
But how is it possible for a girl to have an eating disorder? Psychiatrists point out that the causes are multiple, since they arise from the interaction of biological factors with psychological or psychopathological factors and social factors.
Among the causes, genetics has “an important role” in the origin of eating disorders since it is “a determining element of the predisposition, with genetic factors being able to be responsible for the problem in 60%-80%.
Genetic vulnerability is associated with factors that have to do with the regulation of appetite, with the sensitivity of certain brain areas related to reward, other endocrinometabolic elements and a long etcetera, about which we are increasingly learning more. In some cases, certain traumatic events that occurred during childhood are added to increase the fragility of the future patient.
Patients who suffer from eating disorders, on the other hand, usually present quite specific psychological characteristics, “such as obsessive-compulsive type traits or those typical of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. They also tend to be very perfectionists and exhibit certain personality traits. To this are added in many cases relationship difficulties, great sensitivity to other people's evaluations, alterations in body image and inability or difficulty to recognize and express one's own emotions.
And the social environment, which also has an important role in triggering these problems. “Factors such as ridicule related to body image or the social idealization of thinness drive many people toward diet, which is in most cases the gateway to an eating disorder,” says Vaz Leal.
