Obesity, anorexia, aggression on the rise with the pandemic

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May 16, 2021 Covid-19 and everything it has brought with it. Anti-contagion measures, restrictions, lockdowns and the use of distance learning have undermined our lifestyle habits and our well-being. In particular, they have caused an "explosion" of eating disorders among young and very young people, but also among adults. Anorexia and obesity are becoming more and more widespread, which also involve boys and no longer exclusively girls.

This was reported by Laura Dalla Ragione, director of the network of the Center for eating disorders of

. The service is considered a point of reference on a national and international level.

"In the last year - emphasized Dalla Ragione - requests for assistance have increased considerably and come from all over Italy. About 20 percent of those who come to us are males, in particular from the 12-17 age group".

The two structures in Todi, Palazzo Francisci and the Le rondini center host 35 girls in a residential way while about 200 are those undergoing treatment from the outside. The Center for Eating Disorders has another facility in Città della Pieve (18 places that will soon become 25) dedicated to the problems of

. It hosts the youngest between June and August and adults the rest of the year.

For Dalla Ragione, a negative effect on eating disorders is also linked

"Stress - he explained -, a sedentary lifestyle and a sense of claustrophobia linked to having to stay at home contributed to worsening the situation. Food was a sort of refuge". Another "very strong" theme is that of

. "It is an increasingly evident social problem - underlined Dalla Ragione - especially among the very young. Those who are" different "are subjected to insults, real forms of

About 60 percent of eating disorders are related to bullying phenomena. It is a social problem - concluded Dalla Ragione - on which we must all commit ourselves ".

And again

especially in males, and eating disorders, for girls there is an increase in access to the

for problems related to the psychiatric sphere. This is the picture that emerged from the event 'Boys in the lockdown: the pandemic and the health of minors', the latest episode of 'BioMedical Report', the online scientific broadcast coordinated by the immunologist Mauro Minelli, responsible for the South of the Italian Medicine Foundation Personalized, in collaboration with Adnkronos Salute.

To tackle the effects on the mental health of children and young people: Massimo Molteni, child neuropsychiatrist and head of the developmental psychopathology area at Irccs Eugenio Medea in Lecco, Basilio Malamisura, former director of the Pediatric department in the hospital of Salerno and Luigi Spedicato, professor of Sociology of cultural and communicative processes at the University of Salento.

"What worries us - explained Molteni - is the growing behavioral explosiveness in adolescent males and

in females. Access to the emergency room and hospitalizations in child neuropsychiatry wards have increased considerably in time of the pandemic".

"Among the negative aspects of isolation we record the number of hours spent by a teenager in front of the computer." "

the most common pathologies found by us pediatricians - observed Malamisura - to this must be added aggressive behaviors, irritability and eating disorders which result in overweight and poor sleep quality. There is a way of hope though, physical activity. Our kids want to follow positive examples, if mum and dad do sports even in the garden or in the living room, the children are there and are protected from the negative consequences of a sedentary lifestyle from lockdown ".

Yet according to surveys conducted by the sociologist Spedicato:" Young Italians would have shown surprising

in the months of quarantine from Covid-19. Helped by their family and supported by their parents, they have been able to mitigate the negative effects of forced isolation. Less appreciable speech - he added - instead for the

, especially in our country, which from a sociological point of view has contributed to exacerbating the difficulties and represented an even more worrying reality, often speculating on the conflicts between scientists and opinion leaders. "

And even the immunologist Minelli, as a doctor, warns about the risks of

: "Let's avoid dramatizing this situation and, above all, let's avoid letting the seeds of suspicion and fear sprout - he pointed out - if we don't have adequate certainties and scientific evidence. The catastrophic drift does not help, medicine has other presuppositions. and many other objectives ".