An eating disorder characterized by intense fear of
becoming obese, dramatic weight loss, obsessive concern with one's weight,
disturbances of body image such that the patient "feels fat" when of normal
weight or even when emaciated. The classic anorexic is young (rarely over 30),
female (roughly 95 percent of all cases) and from a middle-or upper-class
family. They frequently are described as "model children." The disorder is
rather resistant to treatment and can have an unremitting course leading to
death, although in
the large
majority of cases there is spontaneous full recovery.