Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders

Incidences of Anorexia Nervosa have appeared to increase sharply in the USA, UK and western European countries since the beginning of the 60s (Gordon, 2001). The increasing prevalence of the disease has led the World Health Organisation to declare eating disorders a global priority area within adolescent mental health (Becker et al. 2011). Anorexia has in many ways become a modern epidemic (Gordon, 2000) and with a mortality rate of 10% per decade (Gorwood et al. 2003), the highest of any mental disorder (Bulik et al. 2006), it is an epidemic that social and biological scientists have been working tirelessly to understand.

Eating Disorders are a set of serious disorders with underlying psychiatric foundations. An eating disorder occurs when exercise, body weight and shape become an unhealthy obsession (Stein, Merrick, & Latzer, 2011). People with eating disorders take physical concerns to the extremes that they take on abnormal eating habits. There are a variety of cases that lead to an eating disorder and can affect both men and women, however its prevalence primarily occur in adolescence (Ison & Kent, 2010; Stein et al., 2011). The complexity and challenges that occur during adolescents predisposes teens to developing an eating disorder. The period of adolescence is one of intense change, which can bring with it a great deal of stress, confusion and anxiety (Allen, Byrne, Oddy & Crosby, 2013). According to Wade, Keski-Rahkonen and Hudson (2011) 20 million women and 10 million men suffer from eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). There are three main categories of eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), and eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Individuals with AN loose more weight than what is considered to be healthy for their particular height, age, gender, and development (Allen et al., 2013). In BN individuals binge eat and purge to compensate for the excessive eating. Purging may include induce vomiting or intake of laxatives that lead to bowel

Several assessment tools have been developed to assess symptoms and behaviors of different constructs including: eating disorders, anxiety, depression, personality, obsessiveness, among others. A common assessment tool in the assessment of symptoms and other features of eating disorders is the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI) that was originally developed by Garner, Olmsted, and Polivy in 1983. Another widely used eating disorder assessment tool is the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) that was developed by Garner and Garfinkel (1979). While both are self-report measures of symptoms of eating disorders and are available in revised forms (EDI-3 and EAT-26), they differ in their reliability and validity as well

Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Three of the most discussed are anorexia, bulimia, and what researchers call EDNOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). Each of the eating disorders can be fatal in their own way. What are the signs, what do they do to you and your body, and what can be done to treat the problem? Researchers have studied long and hard into these three disorders so that those questions could be answered to the best of their ability. In this paper, the outcomes of the research that was done and the thesis

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has a number of features. First of all, every disorder is identified using a name and a numerical code. In addition, the manual provides the criteria for diagnosing each disorder as well as establishes subtypes of a disorder and examples that would illustrate the disorder. The manual goes further by addressing the typical age of onset, culturally related information, gender-related information, prevalence of a disorder, typical clinical course of a disorder, typical predisposing factors of a disorder and genetic family patterns of a disease (Summers, 2009). The DSM-IV is a tool that is used by mental health practitioners and social service workers. As has been demonstrated

Eating disorders affect millions of men and women every day. Bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are three main types of eating disorders that can have detrimental consequences on the human body. These eating disorders not only deteriorate one’s body, but also eradicate the mind. “Inherent to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa are a plethora of medical complications which correlate with the severity of weight loss or the frequency and mode of purging” (Mehler, 2015).

Engel, B., Reiss, N., & Domback, M. (2007, February 2). Introduction To Eating Disorders. Retrieved

According to The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) website, eating disorders are actually serious and often fatal illnesses causing serve disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. People with eating disorders often have obsessions with food, their body weight, and their shape. There is, however, a difference between an eating disorder and a diet. It is important to know the difference. Eating disorders are a daily struggle for 10 million females and 1 million males in the United States (Eating Disorder Hope). An eating disorder is a compulsion to avoid eating in order to lose weight while a diet is cutting down eating or healthier eating in order to lose weight. The three types of an eating disorders are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. All three disorders are important and they all deserve immediate treatment. No matter what eating disorder someone has, it can resort in organ damage and sometimes even death.

     In 1978, Brunch called anorexia nervosa a 'new disease' and noted that the condition seemed to overtake ?the daughters of the well-to-do, educated and successful families.? Today it is acknowledged and accepted that anorexia affects more than

In my research, I explored the world of eating disorders. I wanted to see if there was anything specifically encouraging eating disorders and if there was a way to stop it. Eating disorders affect the community greatly because often times, they go unchecked or unrecognized. As a recovered anorexic, I feel it’s very important to address this issue. It’s a very big problem that is often not addressed at all, or is seen as normal, like counting calories. I hoped to find a way to improve the way that eating disorders are viewed and explain to people about what defines an eating disorder, because many people will never know if it is not explicitly explained to them. My study’s purpose is to bring light into the dark world of eating disorders

In DMS-IV binge eating disorder wasn’t its own disorder. It was analyzed for various reasons, such as having comparable symptoms of bulimia nervosa and anorexia (Williamson, D. A., et al., 2002) After much debate of the issue, in DMS-5 binge eating disorder became its own disorder due to understanding that the disorder is similar to but less severe than full syndromes of anorexia and bulimia nervosa

An eating disorder is an obsessive collection of interrelated behaviors directed towards persistent eating behaviors that negatively impact one’s health, emotions, and ability to function in important areas of life. These compulsive practices and attitudes about food, weight and body shape, manifest into deep psychological fears and an incessant need for control. Some common features of eating disorders include an irrational fear of fat, dissatisfaction with one 's body often coupled with a distorted perception of body shape, unhealthy weight management and extreme food intake. This disordered eating behavior is usually an effort to solve a variety of emotional difficulties about which the individual feels out of control. Males and females of all social and economic classes, races and intelligence levels can develop an eating disorder (Perfect). There are currently three main types of eating disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Each one as dangerous as the next, but yet heavily overlooked and/or misunderstood in society today (Perfect); A review of nearly fifty years of research confirms that anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric disorder (Arcelus, Mitchell, Wales, & Nielsen, 2011).

According to the DSM-5, eating disorders are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating–related behavior that results in non-normative eating patterns which leads to impaired physical and psychosocial functioning, (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of binge eating with inappropriate compensatory behaviors to prevent weight gain. Binge eating is described as eating an amount of food definitely larger than normal with a sense of lack of control. Compensatory behaviors include misuse of laxatives, self-induced vomiting, diuretics, fasting and excessive exercise, (Comer, 2014) . Another key feature is

In our Western society, we have several different types of eating dysfunction, all of which are unique and tragic in their own right. Despite their individuality, however, they all have several overlapping symptoms that are key to their classification and severity. For Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and Binge Eating Disorder (BED), one of the core features is binge eating, which can be defined objectively by number of calories eaten in a given time or subjectively by the feelings of the binger. Binge eating has many different aspects that are of interest to scientists and clinicians alike. One of those interests has to do with the reduction of this symptom among populations being treated for their respective disorder. Because both

EDNOS stands for Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. When a person receives this diagnosis it’s because they have shown symptoms of anorexia, purging, calorie restricting, over exercising and bulimia but do not neatly fit into a well known eating disorder. Patients who suffer from EDNOS have an unhealthy body image and a misguided nutritional