Overall and cause-specific mortality in anorexia nervosa; impact of psychiatric comorbidity and sex in a 40-year follow-up study.

The mortality in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) is high and we show in our study that the mortality is doubled in the presence of psychiatric comorbidity particularly the first 10 years after diagnosis seen in both sexes and with suicide as a major cause of death. These findings stress the importance of detection and treatment of psychiatric comorbidities alongside the eating disorder to prevent fatal outcome.