Pica is an eating disorder characterized by a desire or recurrent compulsion to eat substances that are nonnutritive and not food. These compulsions Compulsions Repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the individual is driven to perform in relation to an obsession. Obsessive-compulsive Disorder (OCD) and ingested substances are inappropriate for age or culture. Pica manifests most commonly during childhood and pregnancy Pregnancy The status during which female mammals carry their developing young (embryos or fetuses) in utero before birth, beginning from fertilization to birth. Pregnancy: Diagnosis, Physiology, and Care and, therefore, carry a high risk for malnutrition Malnutrition Malnutrition is a clinical state caused by an imbalance or deficiency of calories and/or micronutrients and macronutrients. The 2 main manifestations of acute severe malnutrition are marasmus (total caloric insufficiency) and kwashiorkor (protein malnutrition with characteristic edema). Malnutrition in children in resource-limited countries and anemia Anemia Anemia is a condition in which individuals have low Hb levels, which can arise from various causes. Anemia is accompanied by a reduced number of RBCs and may manifest with fatigue, shortness of breath, pallor, and weakness. Subtypes are classified by the size of RBCs, chronicity, and etiology. Anemia: Overview and Types. Patients Patients Individuals participating in the health care system for the purpose of receiving therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive procedures. Clinician–Patient Relationship usually present with nutritional deficiencies or complications from ingesting nonfood substances. Management aims are to stabilize patients Patients Individuals participating in the health care system for the purpose of receiving therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive procedures. Clinician–Patient Relationship medically and then provide appropriate behavioral therapy as a 1st-line option.
Last updated: 29 Apr, 2021
Pica is an eating disorder of unclear etiology characterized by a desire or compulsion to eat substances that are not food in a context that is not developmentally, socially, or culturally appropriate.
The specific substances that are craved vary:
Diagnosis of pica is clinical, based on observed patterns of behavior:
Further testing should be directed by etiology, symptomatology Symptomatology Scarlet Fever, and ingested substances:
Abdominal
X-ray
X-ray
Penetrating electromagnetic radiation emitted when the inner orbital electrons of an atom are excited and release radiant energy. X-ray wavelengths range from 1 pm to 10 nm. Hard x-rays are the higher energy, shorter wavelength x-rays. Soft x-rays or grenz rays are less energetic and longer in wavelength. The short wavelength end of the x-ray spectrum overlaps the gamma rays wavelength range. The distinction between gamma rays and x-rays is based on their radiation source.
Pulmonary Function Tests of a patient with pica:
Patients
Patients
Individuals participating in the health care system for the purpose of receiving therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive procedures.
Clinician–Patient Relationship with pica have a compulsion to ingest nonnutritive material. Some
patients
Patients
Individuals participating in the health care system for the purpose of receiving therapeutic, diagnostic, or preventive procedures.
Clinician–Patient Relationship fixate on eating earth, which can cause bowel blockage.
Abdominal X-rays
Abdominal X-Rays
X-rays can help identify the ingested foreign substance (bright material seen in the
pelvis
Pelvis
The pelvis consists of the bony pelvic girdle, the muscular and ligamentous pelvic floor, and the pelvic cavity, which contains viscera, vessels, and multiple nerves and muscles. The pelvic girdle, composed of 2 “hip” bones and the sacrum, is a ring-like bony structure of the axial skeleton that links the vertebral column with the lower extremities.
Pelvis: Anatomy of the patient).
Pica is classified as an eating disorder and can have features in common with other such disorders.