The rise and fall of a fact: the increase in anorexia nervosa

Hof, S. and Nicolson, M. (1996) The rise and fall of a fact: the increase in anorexia nervosa. Sociology of Health and Illness, 18(5), pp. 581-608. (doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9566.1996.tb00395.x)

Abstract

Over the last thirty years, it has regularly been asserted that the incidence of anorexia nervosa is increasing. The paper examines the background of this idea, traces its origins, and analyses the process whereby it became widely accepted within the medical and sociological literature. The study is based upon a citation list of all the epidemiological studies of anorexia nervosa with publication dates between 1960 and the end of 1990, which has been used to identify the most important publications on the prevalence and incidence of the disease. Scrutiny of the content of these key publications has allowed us to follow the emergence, and then the partial break‐up, of a broad consensus ‐ involving clinical psychiatrists and psychoanalysts, as well as medical sociologists and historians‐around the assertion that anorexia nervosa was increasing in incidence. In the course of this historical reconstruction, four distinctive patterns of citation behaviour were revealed. The paper also examines the changing nature of the explanation offered for the putative rise in the numbers of sufferers and suggests reasons why such a perspective upon the disease was widely supported by clinicians and by a variety of other commentators.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Nicolson, Professor Malcolm
• Authors: Hof, S., and Nicolson, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Social Scientists working in Health and Wellbeing
• Journal Name: Sociology of Health and Illness
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0141-9889
• ISSN (Online): 1467-9566