Doctors decry "how-to" Web sites for anorexia, bulimia

Physicians fear that Internet chat rooms may trigger eating disorders or make them worse.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. Aug. 12, 2002.

She's 16 years old, 5'8" and 120 pounds. She wants to weigh 105 pounds -- then things could be perfect.

Looking in the mirror now makes her cringe. Her reflection depresses her so that she exercises for one to two hours every day. She knows she has an eating disorder -- but she doesn't want to get better. Will you e-mail her and become a mentor, a buddy? Not to help her find her way back to health, but to help her starve.

A disturbing message, indeed. It is just one of the postings on the numerous pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia Web sites that have been popping up on the Internet, and physicians who treat eating disorders say the sites are dangerous.

"There is a good proportion of the population that doesn't want to get better," said Joseph Donnellan, MD, psychiatrist and medical director of the eating disorder program at Somerset Medical Center in Somerville, N.J. "It doesn't help to have Web sites that glorify having an eating disorder."

Eating disorder specialists are looking for ways to interrupt their influence, along with that of other media, including magazines, books, movies and other influences that make eating disorders so tricky to treat.

"We try to understand what the kid is reading and who they're talking with, to be aware of that. But depending on the age and the level of care, you may or may not have a lot of ability to intervene," said Jennifer Hagman, MD, medical director of the eating disorder program at Children's Hospital in Denver.

Experts also say the impact of these Web sites goes beyond other media. Fashion magazines may feature very skinny models, but they don't endorse eating disorders. These sites say that anorexia and bulimia are good things. [...]