Dear readers,

Last week I saw on TV the Dutch documentary “Emma wil Leven”, which was about a young girl who suffered from Anorexia (eating disorder). After trying everything, the girl finally died in a clinic in Portugal. A rather poignant documentary, perhaps also because I have a young daughter myself.

Now I wonder if this disease is a western affair or if it also occurs in Thailand? By the way, you can also ask yourself the same with an illness such as “postpartum depression”?

Is anyone an expert in this area?

Perhaps GP Maarten can report something useful about this?

Regards,

Willem

1 thought on “Reader question: Does anorexia also occur in Thailand?”

  1. Rex the King says up

    Dear Willem,

    A quick look on the web and indeed, research has been done into it! In our practice of New Counseling Service (www.ncs-counseling.com) we also regularly deal with Thai women with Anorexia. We provide psychological assistance to Thais as well as foreigners.

    Here is the URL of the website containing the article:
    http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/j.1440-1614.2006.01761.x

    Objective: To examine eating disorder attitudes and psychopathology among female university students in Australia and Thailand.

    Method: Participants were 110 Caucasian Australians, 130 Asian Australians and 101 Thais in Thailand. The instruments included the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) and the Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI).

    Results: Eating disorder attitudes and psychopathology scores in the Thai group were found to be highest. The Asian Australian group did not have significantly higher scores on the EAT-26 than the Caucasian Australian group, but had higher scores in some subscales of the EDI-2. That the Thai group had the highest scores in susceptibility to developing an eating disorder and eating disorder psychopathology may be partially explained in sociocultural terms, with pressure to be thin more extreme in Thailand than in Australia. The evidence suggested that unhealthy eating disorder psychopathology is not limited to Western societies but is already present in Thai and other Asian societies.

    Keywords: attitudes, EAT, eating disorders, EDI, ethnicity, psychopathology

    Published online: 24 May 2013
    Paper
    Culture and Eating Disorders: A Historical and Cross-Cultural Review
    Merry N., Miller et al.
    Psychiatry
    Published online: 16 Dec 2014


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