A new study finds that young men who are treated for anorexia nervosa do about as well as other young men in terms of long-term mental health - suggesting the disorder exacts less of a toll on men than women.

Because anorexia is far more common in women, researchers know less about how the disorder affects men, and there has often been an assumption that the disorder is essentially the same in both sexes.

Some recent studies, however, suggest this is not the case. Men with anorexia may, for example, be more preoccupied with having an ideal “masculine shape” than with their actual weight, and may be more likely than anorexic women to exercise excessively as a way to control their weight.

Now the new findings suggest that the sexes differ in anorexia prognosis as well, Dr. Frank Lindblad, the study’s lead author, told Reuters Health.

Young men with anorexia did surprisingly well in terms of long-term mental health, which was similar to the norm for the general population, according to Lindblad, a researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The reason is not clear, and because the study included only a small number of men with anorexia, Lindblad said the findings must be interpreted with some caution.

Still, the study suggests that in general, anorexia may take a less severe course in men, Lindblad and his colleagues report in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

The findings are based on data from Swedish national registers, which track the lifelong health and demographics of all citizens using personal identification numbers. Lindblad’s team identified 61 young men who were born between 1968 and 1977 and hospitalized for anorexia between 1987 and 1992, when they were 15 years old, on average.

The researchers then tracked their rates of psychiatric diagnoses and suicide attempts through 2002, and compared them with nearly 529,000 young men in the general population.

Overall, the study found, mental health outcomes were similar in the two groups.

That stands in contrast with findings from a similar study the researchers recently conducted among young Swedish women. In that study, women with a history of anorexia were nearly seven times more likely than those in the general population to be hospitalized for a psychiatric condition; their odds of being hospitalized again for anorexia were four times greater than the norm.

Given the findings in women, the relatively bright outlook for anorexic men was surprising, Lindblad said.

He and his colleagues say future research should look into the factors that might explain these differences.

SOURCE: International Journal of Eating Disorders, December 2006.