Queen Victoria’s Doctor Was The First to Identify Anorexia Nervosa
For years, even scientific-minded doctors wrote off these fasting girl cases as “female hysteria”. They believed that it was simply insanity. Many of these women were being put into mental asylums. In 1873, Queen Victoria’s personal doctor Sir William Gull published a paper of his findings of a medical condition which he called “Anorexia Nervosa (Apepsia Hysterica, Anorexia Hysterica)”. He took several patients with anorexia, and with treatment, he was able to help them get back to a healthy weight. Since he treated this as a medical problem rather than a mental illness, this proved that these women could be treated outside of a mental institution and experience a full recovery. Wood block prints of his patients documented their physical transformations before and after receiving treatment. His ‘Maudsley Method’ of treatment is still used to this day.