A patient with anorexia nervosa will have:

Appeared in: AIIMS Delhi NO- 2019

Explanation

Anorexia nervosa is a state of starvation, which causes the body to slow down its metabolic processes to conserve energy.
This metabolic slowdown leads to bradycardia, a heart rate that is slower than normal.
Dehydration and reduced blood volume, common in anorexia, result in hypotension, or low blood pressure.
Loss of insulating body fat and a decreased metabolic rate lead to hypothermia, an inability to maintain normal body temperature.

Why Other Options Were Wrong

Option A: Tachycardia (fast heart rate) and hypertension (high blood pressure) are incorrect. These signs indicate an increased metabolic state, which is the opposite of what occurs in anorexia nervosa.
Option C: Tachycardia is incorrect. The body's response to starvation is to slow the heart rate (bradycardia) to conserve energy, not speed it up.
Option D: Hypertension (high blood pressure) and hyperthermia (high body temperature) are incorrect. Starvation leads to hypotension and hypothermia.

Related Visual

A diagram showing a silhouette of an underweight person with callouts pointing to the heart with a slow heart rate icon, a blood pressure cuff with a low reading, and a ther...

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: Use the key finding related to Clinical manifestations of anorexia nervosa to guide bedside assessment, documentation, and the next nursing action.
Regular monitoring of vital signs is a critical nursing intervention for patients with anorexia nervosa to detect life-threatening complications like severe bradycardia or hypotension.
These vital sign changes are key indicators of the severity of the illness and can guide the urgency of medical intervention.
Nurses must be vigilant for orthostatic hypotension (a sharp drop in blood pressure upon standing), which increases the risk of falls and syncope (fainting).

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the core condition in the question, which is anorexia nervosa.
Recall the basic pathophysiology of this condition. Anorexia nervosa is fundamentally a state of starvation.
Think logically about how the body would respond to starvation. It would try to conserve energy by slowing down all non-essential functions.
Apply this logic to the vital signs: the heart rate would slow down (bradycardia), blood pressure would drop (hypotension), and body temperature would decrease (hypothermia).
Scan the options to find the one that matches this physiological response: Bradycardia, Hypotension, Hypothermia.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Clinical manifestations of anorexia nervosa
Stem keywords: anorexia nervosa, patient
Lead-in keywords: BEST, MOST RELEVANT CLUE
Negative lead-in flag: false

Question ID

QKyH4qnDBSFdTedHEAAwlg

Reference Book

E6 Kaplan Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry-2022 (pp 1-3768 of 3768) pp. 1501-1503, 1499-1501

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) p. 6936-6938

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