Abstract

Stressful weight loss describes a patient who is initially diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis. Once she is euthyroid on treatment, she starts to become increasingly unwell, with weight loss being the main feature of her illness. She is misdiagnosed with anorexia nervosa and is admitted as an inpatient to a specialist eating disorder centre and only once in addisonian crisis does she present to hospital where the correct diagnosis is made. The paper hopes to highlight the difficulties in diagnosing Addison's disease and the lessons that can be learnt from this case. It also covers autoimmune polyglandular syndrome type II which is the ultimate diagnosis of the patient.