Facts About Eating Disorders and the Search for Solutions
Eating
is controlled by many factors, including appetite, food availability,
family, peer, and cultural practices, and attempts at voluntary
control. Dieting to a body weight leaner than needed for health
is highly promoted by current fashion trends, sales campaigns
for special foods, and in some activities and professions.
Eating disorders involve serious disturbances
in eating behavior, such as extreme and unhealthy reduction
of food intake or severe overeating, as well as feelings of
distress or extreme concern about body shape or weight. Researchers
are investigating how and why initially voluntary behaviors,
such as eating smaller or larger amounts of food than usual,
at some point move beyond control in some people and develop
into an eating disorder. Studies on the basic biology of appetite
control and its alteration by prolonged overeating or starvation
have uncovered enormous complexity, but in the long run have
the potential to lead to new pharmacologic treatments for
eating disorders.
Eating
disorders are not due to a failure of will or behavior;
rather, they are real, treatable medical illnesses in which
certain maladaptive patterns of eating take on a life of their
own. The main types of eating disorders are anorexia nervosa
and bulimia nervosa. A third type, binge-eating
disorder, has been suggested but has not yet been approved
as a formal psychiatric diagnosis. Eating disorders
frequently develop during adolescence or early adulthood,
but some reports indicate their onset can occur during childhood
or later in adulthood.
Eating
disorders frequently co-occur with other psychiatric
disorders such as depression,
substance abuse, and anxiety
disorders. In addition, people who suffer from eating
disorders can experience a wide range of physical
health complications, including serious heart conditions and
kidney failure which may lead to death. Recognition of eating
disorders as real and treatable diseases, therefore,
is critically important.
Females
are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder.
Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia
or bulimia and an estimated 35 percent of those with binge-eating
disorder are male.
Common
typos:
eatnig, eaitng, etaing, aeting, eatig, eatng, eaing, eatimg,
eatign, disorreder, diorder, disorredar, disrder, dysorredar,
disorer, disorredel, disordr, disordar, dysordar, , dsorder,
dysorder, dysorders, disorders, , disorreders, diorders, disrders,
disoders, disorers, disordesr, disordres, disoredrs, disodrers,
disroders, diosrders, dsiorders, idsorders, isorders, dysorreder,
disoder, disordrs, disordes
| Eating
Disorders | Anorexia
Nervosa | Bulimia
Nervosa |
| Binge-Eating
Disorder | Treatment
Strategies |
source:
nimh.nih.gov
|
