Letter: In brief

Sir: Professor Kirkwood ("Hungry for a longer life?", 22 January) refers too casually to the danger of anorexia. According to a recent article in the US journal Science (29 May 1998) this disease "is among the most disabling and lethal of psychiatric disorders" with a mortality rate of approximately 5 per cent of patients per decade of follow-up.

ANDREW COULSON

Musselburgh, East Lothian