Austė Janušauskaitė¹, Alma Kajėnienė² 

¹Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Academy of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

²Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Academy of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Sports Medicine.

Abstract

Background. Eating disorders in sports are frequently occuring conditions, which in the beginning are hardly seen and diagnosed. Both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa are known for keystoning of body weight and figure, fear of putting on weight. Although at the beginning of the disease patient can care just for better sports results, however in the end irrational weight lost becomes the priority. According to the literature, if diagnosed on time and given athlete appropriate information about balanced diet, there is possibility to stop progression of the illness. But if eating disorders are not diagnosed on time, they can have not only an impact on sports results, but also worsen patient’s quality of life, so one of the treatment options can become restriction of physical activity.

The aim: to elucidate main eating disorders in sports, their etiology, risk factors and symptoms, as well as find out what methods of diagnosis and treatment are most commonly described in the literature.

Methods: it is a systematic literature review. Articles were selected from electronic database PubMed with keywords ,,eating disorders in sports” and ,,athletes with anorexia nervosa” also ,,athletes with bulimia nervosa”. Certain keywords and their combinations were used to find specific medical articles. From 2001 to 2020 articles on the topic were evaluated and analyzed. A summarized analysis of scientific articles is presented in this review.

Results. A total of 532 articles were found about eating disorders in sports, 54 about athletes with anorexia nervosa, 21 about athletes with bulimia nervosa. Certain keywords and their combinations were used to find specific medical articles. From 2001 to 2020 articles on the topic were evaluated and analyzed. 26 suitable articles were choosen. A summarized analysis of scientific articles is presented in this review.

Conclusions. Most common risk and etiological factors of main eating disorders in sports is striving for results and ability to control through food. Frequent symptoms are food control and guilt, due to this there are consequences: amenorrhea, obstipations, tooth enamel erosions. Diagnostics is difficult, there is SCOFF questionnaire, but is is very important to talk about person’s different behaviour with his family and trainer. Treatment for eating disorders are healthy eating plan, medications, psychotherapy. There are prevention programs which involve multiple topics.

Keywords: eating disorders, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, sport, athlete, prevention.