: 10 Healthcare workers involved in the treatment of anorexia reported frustration and anger to set backs in treatment and noncompliance and were afraid of patients dying. Some healthcare workers felt that they did not understand the treatment and that medical doctors were making decisions. : 11  They may feel powerless to improve a patients situation and deskilled as a result. : 12  Healthcare workers involved in monitoring patients consumption of food felt watched themselves. : 12  Healthcare workers often feel a degree of moral dissonance of not being in control of outcomes which they may protect against by focusing on individual tasks, avoiding identifying with patients (for example by making their eating behavior very different and not sharing personal information with patients), and blaming patients for their distress. : 13,14  Healthcare workers would inflexibly follow process to avoid responsibility. : 13  Healthcare workers attempted to reach balance by gradually giving patients back control avoiding feeling sole responsibility for outcomes, being mindful of their emotional state, and trying to view eating disorders as external from patients. : 13

Prognosis
AN has the highest mortality rate of any psychological disorder. The mortality rate is 11 to 12 times greater than in the general population, and the suicide risk is 56 times higher. Half of women with AN achieve a full recovery, while an additional 20–30% may partially recover. Not all people with anorexia recover completely: about 20% develop anorexia nervosa as a chronic disorder. If anorexia nervosa is not treated, serious complications such as heart conditions and kidney failure can arise and eventually lead to death.
Theories to explain these lower rates of eating disorders, lower reporting and lower research rates in include the effects of westernisation, and culture change.Men (and women) who might otherwise be diagnosed with anorexia may not meet the DSM-IV criteria for BMI since they have muscle weight, but have very little fat. In many cases a subclinical "not otherwise specified" diagnosis is made instead; ED-NOS in the DSM-IV, and other specified feeding or eating disorder or unspecified feeding or eating disorder in the DSM-5. ED-NOS was the most diagnosed eating disorder in 2009, and it was also shown that AN did not differ significantly in eating pathology or general psychopathology from EDNOS involving restrictive eating.The elderly population is increasingly experiencing anorexia nervosa, which has been termed the "Anorexia of Aging". The eating disorder is similar to that of typical anorexia nervosa but is more often accompanied by the overuse of laxatives in order to purge the individual of ingested food. Most geriatric anorexia patients limit their food intake to dairy or grains, whereas an adolescent anorexic has a more general limitation.This eating disorder that affects older adults has two types - early onset and late onset. Early onset refers to a recurrence of anorexia in late life in an individual who experienced the disease during their youth. Late onset describes instances where the eating disorder begins for the first time late in life.