Some psychiatric hospitals or departments have units specialising in the treatment of eating disorders. Self-help groups, details of which are available from the Eating Disorders Association, also play a useful part in rehabilitation. Many doctors get carried away with antidepressants, but overlook the bread and cheese. Of course, anorexics get anxious, depressed and sleepless, so the judicious use of tranquillisers, antidepressants and hypnotics is helpful. Giving another dose in the meantime could lead to serious problems when both doses are finally absorbed.
Starved patients are more sensitive to bone marrow depression with drugs such as chlorpromazine.
Similarly, they are more sensitive to the disinhibiting effects of diazepam, becoming extremely unrealistic and feeling they can 'float off balconies'. This is something pharmacists could warn about if they are dispensing for anorexic patients. Bulimia nervosa Bulimia nervosa is a condition in which sufferers eat exceptionally large amounts of food in a short time then try to rid themselves of it by vomiting, laxatives, diuretics or starvation. The sufferer's life becomes dominated by thoughts of shopping, cooking, bingeing then getting rid of food. Bulimia tends to occur later than anorexia, typically in the late teens and early 20s, and is uncommon under the age of 15 years.