Science Minutes – Behavioral Sciences

Eating disorder characteristics among Hungarian medical students: Changes between 1989 and 2011

Eating disorders are considered to be diseases of modern civilization, the most well-known are obesity, anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. For a long time thesewere regarded as diseases of Western culture, therefore their prevalence in Hungary was an important issue. The first survey in this subject was conducted in 1989 in Debrecen with the participation of medical students. Results showed that eating disorders had appeared in Hungary as well, with a frequency similar to Western countries. Dr. Ferenc Túry, professor of the Institute of Behavioral Sciences pointed out that this study was repeated two decades later in Debrecen and at Semmelweis University.

The results published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions indicate that milder forms of anorexia cases among women have risen from 0.3% to 2.5% and the proportion of men reporting compensating behaviors has increased from 8.9% to 14.6%. This indicates the importance of treating eating disorders in psychiatric care and similar studies are recommended in the general population.