Lack of appetite is the refusal to eat due to dullness or complete loss of hunger. The symptom is accompanied by weight loss, dyspeptic manifestations. The main reasons for which appetite is suppressed are mental and neurological disorders, pathologies of the digestive system, and hormonal disorders. To identify the etiological factor, blood and feces tests, instrumental imaging methods, and a comprehensive neurological examination are performed. To restore appetite, it is necessary to identify and eliminate the causes of its oppression.
Due to severe toxicosis and repeated painful bouts of vomiting, pregnant women often refuse food in the first trimester. In severe forms of the disease, even the smell and sight of food provokes vomiting, so women only drink water. It is possible to lose more than 5% of body weight in a few days and severe dehydration, which poses a risk to the health of the mother and child. A severe degree of toxicosis is an indication for inpatient treatment.
Loss of interest in food and a sharp reduction in portions is already characteristic of the initial stage of the disease. Manifestations are due to a pathological desire to lose weight and constant dissatisfaction with one's body, even if there is no apparent reason for this. Initially, a person may feel hungry, but prefers to maintain severe restrictions in the diet. As anorexia progresses, the feeling of hunger disappears, patients drink only water, tea or coffee for weeks.
Lack of appetite is combined with severe weakness, drowsiness, disability. All body systems suffer, metabolic processes are disturbed, therefore, when trying to force-feed a patient with anorexia, he starts vomiting, painful abdominal cramps appear. This condition is dangerous to health and life, requires qualified medical care.
Appetite often decreases with depression, when there is a loss of motivation, interest in life, a person becomes indifferent to what is happening. Many patients claim that they have ceased to feel the taste of products. Frequent skipping of meals up to starvation is typical. The symptom also develops with intense acute and chronic stress, emotional upheaval.
A short-term lack of appetite occurs in the acute period of all infectious diseases, which is due to the massive intoxication of the body with the decay products of microbial cells and the accumulation of inflammatory mediators. During the entire febrile period, patients either refuse to eat at all, or consume light, low-fat meals (liquid soups, cereals) a couple of times a day.
Appetite is restored after the temperature normalizes, during convalescence there is an increased feeling of hunger. In the chronic or latent course of infectious processes, lack of appetite occurs against the background of other symptoms: weakness and weakness for no reason, night sweats, recurrent headaches and dizziness. The main infectious factors, under the influence of which appetite is lost:
The absence or decrease in appetite is caused by various reasons: poisoning with chemical compounds and toxic products of industrial production, endogenous intoxication (with uremia, liver failure). The symptom becomes a consequence of damage to the autonomic centers of the brain, a general serious condition. Aversion to food as a component of asthenic syndrome sometimes persists even after detoxification measures.
Chronic diseases of the gastrointestinal tract are accompanied by signs of constant dyspepsia, which provoke a complete absence or decrease in appetite. Sometimes patients limit themselves to food, because after eating the intensity of discomfort in the abdomen usually increases. Gradual weight loss and exhaustion of patients is characteristic. The most typical causes of the gastrointestinal tract, causing a complete or partial lack of appetite:
Disturbances in the hormonal background lead to a change in metabolic processes, a decrease in catabolism reactions, which is why appetite decreases or is lost. The symptom is characteristic of hypothyroidism. With this disease, patients eat much less, but do not lose weight, and sometimes, on the contrary, gain weight. There is also a cooling and swelling of the skin, constant drowsiness, weakness, apathy.
Similar signs occur with hypopituitarism - insufficient function of the pituitary gland. A decrease in the production of all regulatory hormones slows down metabolism, reduces a person's need for food. Lack of hunger is associated with concomitant damage to the brain structures responsible for the formation of appetite. The combination of loss of desire to eat with a change in skin color to "bronze" is a typical manifestation of Addison's disease.
A complete lack of appetite, accompanied by unmotivated weakness, lethargy, weight loss, is a component of the syndrome of "small signs" in oncological pathology. First, patients need a smaller amount of food to saturate, then the desire to eat disappears, the frequency of meals is reduced to 1-2 times a day. Atypical eating habits appear, for example, stomach cancer is characterized by an aversion to meat products.
Lack of appetite is noted in many diseases, so the primary examination of the patient is carried out by a general practitioner. To select a complex of instrumental and laboratory studies, it is necessary to carefully collect complaints and a history of the development of the disease, to identify the leading pathological syndrome. Further, specific diagnostic methods are prescribed, the most informative of which are:
Ultrasound examination is indicated in the absence of appetite
Decrease or lack of appetite in the feverish period of infectious diseases is normal. You do not need to forcefully eat food so as not to overload the gastrointestinal tract, but it is important to drink plenty of fluids (water, compotes, tea, herbal decoctions). If the symptom is caused by stress, you can try to cope with it yourself - doctors advise decoctions of soothing herbs, walks in the fresh air, auto-training techniques.
A slight dulling of hunger or a sudden change in taste preferences without a significant deterioration in well-being during pregnancy is not a cause for concern, but with a combination of a complete refusal to eat and repeated vomiting, an obstetrician-gynecologist should be consulted. When the lack of appetite is accompanied by severe weight loss and general malaise, this indicates pathological causes that require medical attention.
Methods for treating lack of appetite depend on the cause of the symptom. With psychogenic disorders and anorexia nervosa, group and individual psychotherapy comes to the fore. Severe exhaustion is an indication for forced tube or parenteral nutrition. With somatic pathologies, etiotropic and pathogenetic drugs are prescribed: