Eating disorders experts are treating growing numbers of women who are developing anorexia or bulimia well into adulthood, far beyond the teenage years when the conditions usually emerge.
Psychiatrists are seeing more patients who have become seriously ill with either of the crippling conditions for the first time in their 30s, 40s, 50s and occasionally 60s. In many cases, the illness has been triggered by a relationship breaking down, unemployment, the menopause, losing a parent, or seeing children leave home.
Some working with patients say that the rise in what are called late-onset eating disorders is linked to some women in their 40s and 50s feeling under pressure to look young because of the prominence of age-defying older female celebrities, such as Madonna and Sharon Stone.
"Five or 10 years ago, I would've seen one case of an older person developing an eating disorder about once every year or two. But now I see them more often – about five new patients a year with late onset anorexia nervosa or bulimia," said Dr Sylvia Dahabra, a psychiatrist in Newcastle who works for the regional specialist eating disorders service.
Sian, who didn't want to be fully identified, tells the story of her mother, Fiona, who died of anorexia in 2008 aged 48. "The trauma of me moving out of the family home at 18 to live nearby, and then relocating further away to Bournemouth when I was 21, triggered her serious decline. I was pretty much mum's life, and me leaving meant she was alone. She ended up weighing just six stone when she passed away when I was 21," said Sian. Fiona died in her sleep after contracting bronchial pneumonia.
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