Info About Health And Risk Assessment

According to the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the number of people admitted to hospital for treatment of the eating disorder bulimia nervosa has decreased in recent years. At the same time, however, admissions for a less well known condition called “pica” have almost doubled.

What is Pica?

Pica is an eating disorder in which people consume normally inedible substances such as soil, chalk, sand, ice, paint or even faeces. The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines pica as “the persistent eating of non-nutritive substances for a period of at least 1 month” that is:

• inappropriate to the person’s developmental level (for instance, young children may experiment with eating dirt, earthworms and other nasties, but this is not classed as pica)
• not part of a culturally sanctioned practice (for example, kaolin is eaten widely in parts of Africa and may have health benefits in such instances, but this is also not considered pica)
• if occurring in a person with another mental disorder, the consumption is sufficiently severe to warrant independent clinical attention.

Other than 1–6-year-olds and people with developmental disabilities such as autism, pregnant women are most likely to crave non-food substances. However, the condition has also been reported in men, and in people of all ages and ethnicities. It tends to be more common in lower socioeconomic groups.

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