Anorexia: One in ten teenage girls has an eating disorder and boys as young as ten are also at risk

Modern society exerts pressure for children to be and look perfect at a young age, a pressure which experts say often leads to eating disorders (picture posed by model)

Up to one in ten teenage girls has an eating disorder, medical experts have warned.

And increasing numbers of boys are also at risk, some of them as young as ten, a major study has found.

Experts said that with the young under increasing pressure to ‘be perfect and look perfect’, the problem is now so severe it threatens the mental health of an entire generation.

For the first time, doctors have tried to measure the rate of eating disorders through the numbers of patients attending GP practices.

Across the population as a whole, the data shows a 13 per cent jump in the number of new cases diagnosed each year between 2003 and 2009.

The highest rates of new cases are among girls aged 15 to 19 and boys aged ten to 14.

Dr Nadia Micali, of the Institute of Child Health, University College, London, which carried out the research, said: ‘The absolute numbers affected by eating disorders are large.

It’s 5 to 10 per cent among adolescent girls, and closer to 10 per cent.’

The incidence of anorexia and bulimia, where victims make themselves sick after eating to lose or maintain weight, have stayed fairly constant but there has been a ‘significant increase’ in other eating disorders, including binge eating.

In teenage girls, eating disorders are now second only to depression as the most common new mental health problem they will be diagnosed with.

One in 500 girls aged 15 to 19 is likely to be formally diagnosed with an eating disorder every year, adding almost 5,000 new patients to the growing toll.

Girls aged ten to 19 are now nine times more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder as they are to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Bulimia and other eating disorders account for about 38 per cent each of new cases, while anorexia accounts for one in four cases.

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And there has been a steady increase in the number of cases diagnosed among boys aged ten to 14, although experts say the numbers in this group are still relatively small.

Overall incidence rates for men went up from 5.6 to 7.1 per 100,000 from 2000 to 2009.

‘Other eating disorders’, the most common category, went up from 3.4 to 4.2 – although the rate was up to 15 per 100,000 for boys aged ten to 14.

Dr Micali said the problem in boys was fast-growing as they fell prey to pressures of modern lifestyle and culture.

Girls aged ten to 19 are now nine times more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder as they are to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, according to UCL research

‘Modern society exerts pressure for children and young people to be perfect, to look perfect and be high achievers,’ she said. ‘Boys are starting to suffer as girls did in the past.

‘It’s a mix of genes and environment, nature and nurture, but the reality is we don’t know enough about what causes eating disorders yet.’

The data shows that in 2003 there were 32.3 new cases of eating disorder per 100,000 people aged between ten and 49, rising to 37.2 new cases by 2009 – a 13 per cent jump.

Binge eating has not previously been classified on its own, but last week the latest edition of the psychiatrists’ manual of mental health disorders made it a new eating disorder.

‘It makes up a large percentage of "other" eating disorders which potentially affects as many boys as girls,’ said Dr Micali.

She said some of the increase in diagnoses over recent years could be down to better awareness among family doctors and sufferers, who are more willing to seek help.

‘But I suspect these figures are an under-estimate, with many not going to their GP with symptoms that are just as bad,’ she added.

The study, published online in BMJ Open, used data from the General Practice Database which contains anonymised records of 5 per cent of the population.

It found a total of 9,072 cases of eating disorders diagnosed between 2000 and 2009.

Susan Ringwood, of the eating disorders charity Beat, said: ‘If the figures reflect greater awareness that’s a good thing, but the increase could be the result of the pressures of modern life.’

She called on GPs to spot those at risk and take steps to help them early when eating disorders were most treatable.

Jane Smith, of the charity Anorexia and Bulimia Care, said callers repeatedly complained of poor treatment, adding: ‘We need improvements in care and new ways of tackling this rising problem.’

LAURA, 18, DIED AFTER REFUSING TREATMENT IN ANOREXIA BATTLE Laura Willmott: Her weight fell so low that she could no longer walk

Anorexia sufferer Laura Willmott died aged 18 after starving herself to barely five stone.

The former private school pupil was admitted to hospital when her weight became so dangerously low that she could no longer walk.

She had been fighting the illness for five years when her mother became so concerned that she took her to A&E.

But she was discharged after 11 days, having been allowed to refuse treatment because she was legally an adult.

She was deemed fit to return home on November 8, 2011, but continued to avoid eating and pretended she had drunk high-protein drinks.

Miss Willmott, an aspiring nurse from Redland, Bristol, suffered cardiac arrest on December 12 and died of brain damage a week later.

Avon Coroner’s Court was told she had been given autonomy on her treatment around the time of her 18th birthday in February 2011.

But her parents criticised the decision, saying it left them ‘in the dark’ and that it became ‘impossible to persuade’ her to take treatment. Her mother said Miss Willmott was ‘doomed’ from that point.

Consultant psychiatrist Dr Hugh Herzig said he had been reluctant to take all decision-making powers away from Miss Willmott.

Coroner Terence Moore, who recorded a narrative verdict, called for a change in policy in the treatment of eating disorders.