About 18% of teens in a Finnish study told researchers they have eating disorders. Those young people, most of whom were not overweight, were more likely to have psychological and health problems.

Lea Hautala from the Adolescent Psychiatry Clinic at the University of Turku surveyed 372 students, ages 15 to 17 years old. Among those with eating disorders, 70% had other health problems such as headaches; 47% suffered from anxiety; 31% were depressed; and 77% were unhappy with their appearances. Girls were twice as likely to have eating disorders as boys.

This study appears in the Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Labels: health_problems, psychology

Since 2002, the number of teenagers with eating disorders as increased six-fold in Singapore. And, unfortunately, only 10 to 20 percent are actively seeking treatment.

Local psychologists feel that the alarming rise of teenage eating disorders is due to lack of confidence or control.

"Dr Evelyn Boon, Psychologist, Singapore General Hospital, said: 'One of the contributing factors could be that they feel bad about certain things. It could be what they can't control - their family, how they feel about themselves. So in order for them to feel better, they feel that they should control how they are looked at by other people. A lot of them have this misconception that being slim is popular. That's one of the more common things we've heard of. The other thing is if they're teased in school about being overweight, they go the other extreme.'"

Experts believe that Singapore girls have lower self-esteem and a higher level of insecurities about themselves than other Asian girls. Read more online.

Labels: girls, psychology, teenagers