Diagnosing Eating Disorder in Hair

Posted by Lori Henry Oct 22, 2006

The study shows that doctors can analyze strands of hair for nutritional intake and carbon and nitrogen molecules. The researchers were able to accurately determine a diagnosis 80% of the time.

“Just as it can be used to determine if someone has used drugs or has been exposed to harmful amounts of mercury and lead, hair can show what someone has been eating,” Ken Hatch said, a professor in BYU's department of integrative biology. "This would give a clinician an objective measure to use to diagnose an eating disorder, and we hope it will eventually allow a sound diagnosis at an earlier stage.”

This might help doctors come to a conclusion, as suffers are often secretive and against seeking therapy.

"Their self-evaluation is very impaired," said Jennifer Tolman, clinical director at Avalon Hills, a treatment facility in Cache County, Utah. "We had a girl who was 5-10 and 98 pounds and she wasn't even sure she had an eating disorder, although she could recognize it in others," Tolman said.

Larger studies are planned to develop this test in clinics. The research findings were published last week in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry.