An observational study in Eating Disorders, sponsored by IRCCS Burlo Garofolo. Recruiting at 1 site in Italy. Open to participants aged 10 Years to 18 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2025-05-16.
Sponsored by IRCCS Burlo Garofolo · Observational
Eating disorders (ED) are common among young. Anorexia (AN) and bulimia (BN) are the most prevalent ED. The American Psychiatric Association's guidelines state a 0.3% AN prevalence among young girls and a 0.1 to 4.2% BN prevalence. Men are not excluded: even if ED are more frequent in females (14-18 years), 1 man off to 10 can be diagnosed with ED. Unfortunately, the onset age is decreasing. In the last few years, always more preteens patients are diagnosed with ED: they generally refer a garbled self perception of body image. ED can have oral manifestations, such as: mucosal lesions, dental erosion, glandular hypertrophy, xerostomia and salivary disorders, dental caries These are the most common manifestations observed in patients with eating disorders, after a routine dental visit. There is not strong evidence that dental caries may be directly related to disordered eating habits; as a matter of fact results are controversial. Despite that, all the studies examined agree on the association between signs listed above and food disorders. Univocal percentages have not been reported in the scientific literature. For instance, a systematic review, dated 2016, showed that dental erosion is diagnosed in 45% of ED people, while other studies documented 70% patients affected by erosion. Another example reported is teeth hypersensitivity. According to some studies, 56% of ED patients reported such complaints, instead of other researches documenting 22% hypersensitivity impairment. As for dental caries, results are dissimilar. Authors showed 78% ED subjects diagnosed with dental caries. Other studies reported almost 50% patients with tooth decay, without statistically significant difference in the values between ED people and controls. All these differences are probably due to the different stages of eating disorders and diagnosis, and oral signs found. Different ages are also considered. The primary aim of the study is to evaluate the prevalence of oral cavity lesions among people affected by eating disorders.
645 studies on the registry are indexed under Feeding and Eating Disorders; 153 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 81 is below the median of 102 across 177 observational studies indexed under Feeding and Eating Disorders.
Browse Feeding and Eating Disorders studies →IRCCS Burlo Garofolo is the lead sponsor of 89 studies on the registry; 32 are open to participants now.
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Patients affected by eating disorders
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Exclusion Criteria:
Prevalence of oral lesions in ED affected patients
Mucosal lesions, dental erosion, glandular hypertrophy, xerostomia or other salivary disorders, and dental caries will be examined.
Time frame: At baseline (day 1)
To evaluate the association between presence of oral lesions and type of ED
Clinical data will be collected by clinical records
Time frame: At baseline (day 1)
To evaluate the association between presence of oral lesions and patients' global functioning index
Patients' global functioning index will be defined by the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), an integral part of the standard multiaxial psychiatric diagnostic system. The purpose of including the GAF in DSM-IV as a tool for axis V assessment is to enable clinicians to obtain information about global functioning to supplement existing data about symptoms and diagnoses and to help predict the allocation and outcomes of mental health treatment. The GAF provides a score from 1 to 100: 1 for situation with low functioning; 100 for situation of complete wellbeing.
Time frame: At baseline (day 1)
To evaluate the association between presence of oral lesions and patients' self-perception about oral health
Patients' self-perception about oral health will be defined by the Psychosocial Impact of Dental Aesthetics Questionnaire (PIDAQ), evaluating the oral health-related quality of life: 23 items, with a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree), analyzing dental self-confidence, social impact, psychological impact and aesthetic concern. The Italian version was validated in 2014. The possible range of summary scores varied between 0 to 92. Higher scores indicate a greater degree of negative psychosocial impact.
Time frame: At baseline (day 1)
Started Jul 2021 (actual). Primary completion is estimated for Dec 2025, 53 months after the start.
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IRCCS Burlo Garofolo