For a few months now, a study has been going on about how covid-19 affects people who suffer from eating disorders, a study led by Professor Cynthia Bulik at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of North Carolina in the USA.
Although few of the participants in the study themselves had become ill from the virus, it had major effects on their mental health.
- It is interesting that even though we are in a global pandemic with many deaths, this group does not worry as much about the infection as about their mental state, says Professor Cynthia Bulik.
Their anxiety has increased sharply with their isolation.
In the heels of the corona pandemic follows a pandemic of mental illness.
Harder to follow meal plans during the pandemic
The first preliminary figures include people from the USA and the Netherlands during the first period of the pandemic, but the hope is that it will also be possible to include Swedish patients and return to all participants many times in the next few years.
A majority of the participants in the study who suffer from anorexia nervosa state that they eat less and have more difficulty following their meal plans during the pandemic.
Among people with bulimia, the periods of binge eating have increased.
Even previous patients who have recovered from their illness experience increased anxiety about relapse.
Above all, it is changed routines, social isolation and a lot of time in the triggering environment at home at kitchen tables and refrigerators that are stated as the cause of the feelings of anxiety.
Are there study participants who measure better
This is in line with the increased number of calls from support applicants to eating disorder and relatives lines run by Frisk & Fri-Riksföreningen against eating disorders.
But there are also study participants who state that they felt better during this time.
Homeschooling, relatives who work at home and more contact with the family are factors that in some cases lead to better mental health during the pandemic.
The eating disorder clinics in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Örebro that SVT Nyheter has been in contact with state that they have managed to maintain the care of their patients much as before.
However, in some cases they have switched to digital care meetings and reduced the number of participants in group treatments.
Parent meetings and other family-oriented parts of the treatment have also changed.