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Tue, 28 May, 2024 - 20:36

Ann Murphy

A new study has found that covid worsened overall symptoms of eating disorders for many sufferers.

The study, published in the Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, was conducted among adult patients attending the eating disorder service at St Patrick’s Mental Health Services in Dublin for one year before the pandemic.

All patients of the hospital’s inpatient unit, outpatient, and day hospital service from March 2019 to March 2020 were invited to take part.

The survey was conducted for six weeks from June 2021 to August 2021, and found that 83.3% of respondents felt that the pandemic had worsened their overall symptoms.

The study also found that:

91.7% said they often felt they do not have control of important things in their lives
80% were not confident of their ability to control problems
75% of respondents reported that their drive for thinness worsened during the pandemic
83.3% reported fear of gaining weight was worsened
Almost half of those with bulimia nervosa, however, reported no change in purging behaviour while 50% reported no change in binge-eating patterns.

The study was conducted by Jahan Zeb Khan of Louth/Meath Health Service; Roisin McManus of St Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin; Declan M McLoughlin of Trinity College, and Clare O’Toole of St Patrick’s Mental Health Service.

The study was completed by 24 women, with 22 aged between 18 and 30 years old.

The authors noted: “The results suggested a negative impact on most eating disorder symptoms, and participants reported higher levels of stress in their lives...For example, increased stress experienced during the pandemic may have contributed to an increased drive for physical activity.”

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They also said that high stress levels reported by participants “might be due to the closure of leisure activities during the lockdown and people leaving their houses, mainly for exercise. This is mirrored by the findings of a recent study reporting worsening anxiety, depression, and social isolation during the pandemic.”

A spokeswoman for Bodywhys, the support service for eating disorders, said that “the context in which covid/lockdowns tend to come up in services nowadays is in reference to the many factors in the mix of the disorder, either as a starting point, or a time when things came to the fore.”

Bodywhys published a study in 2021 which highlighted a 66% increase in hospital admissions for eating disorders amongst children and adolescents in Ireland since the covid-19 pandemic, compared to 2019.

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