NYGH Paediatricians highlight 'shadow pandemic' of young people with eating disorders

eating disorder week

As social isolation caused by school disruptions and limits on extracurricular activities takes a toll on young people, Drs. Ronik Kanani, Chief of Paediatrics and Samantha Martin, Adolescent-Medicine Specialist and Paediatrician at North York General Hospital (NYGH), are seeing a worrying upward trend of patients as young as nine year’s old, suffering from eating disorders.

NYGH’s Eating Disorders Program, located within the 12-bed paediatric unit, typically uses one to four beds for eating disorder patients, and is now using an alarming nine beds.

The Eating Disorders program has also had up to 75% of the inpatient General Paediatric beds occupied with far more complex Eating Disorders patients. They have also seen a 20% increase in admissions and 31% increase in outpatient visits for ongoing therapy.

Drs. Kanani and Martin were recently interviewed about this concerning trend and each spoke to various CBC radio stations across Canada including On the West Coast with Gloria Macarenko.

Dr. Martin also spoke with the Globe and Mail and described the current situation as a ‘shadow pandemic’. You can read the full article online.

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