Clinical - anorexia Flashcards
What does anorexia nervosa mean?
severe loss of weight because of emotional reasons
What are the 7 symptoms of anorexia?
- distorted body image
- refusing to eat
- excessive exercise
- restriction of calorie intake
- preoccupation with body size
- fear of gaining weight
- not knowing their weight is dangerous
What is the DSM4 criteria to be diagnosed with anorexia?(4 points)
- refusal to maintain body weight at or above a normal weight for your age and height (being below 85%)
- intense fear of gaining weight or becoming fat, even though underweight
- distorted body image or denial that they have a problem
- amenorrhoea - the absence of at least 3 consecutive periods
what 2 things has changed between the DSM4 and DSM5 criteria of anorexia
- amenorrhoea has been removed
- its now been separated from binge eating
what is pica?
- eating non food substances e.g sand, wood and clay
what is atypical anorexia?
when you don’t have all the symptoms e.g you don’t have a pathological fear of losing weight but express a preference of being thin
what age group are most at risk of anorecia?
adolescents
what percentage of cases are females?
90-95%
What are 4 famous cases of anorexia?
- Girl from the carpenters
- Lilly Allen
- Kate Beckinsale
- Lady Gaga had it from the age of 15
what 2 explanations am I using?
social and psychodynamic
there are 2 parts to the social explanation of anorexia. What are they?
socio cultural approach and the feminist approach
what is the socio cultural approach?
- anorexia is caused by western societies belief of beauty
- the media states you have to be size 0 to have the ‘ideal body shape
- all images in the media are skiny
- people get ‘fat shamed’ if they put on a pound
- nobody tells you its fine to be fat
- tv presenters are thin so from a young age children are told to be thin
Evaluation of the socio cultural approach
+ anorexia is more common in the west
+Crisp (1976) found there ar emore eating disorders where an emphasis is placed on thinness e.g models and dancers. As there is an emphasis on thinness in the west t explains more cases of anorexia.
+ arab and Asian women are more likely to develop anorexia if thy move to the west
+Owen and Lauren-Jeller (2000) examined the playboy centrefolds and found over 50% of them were underweight and 50% could be classified as anorexic
x only a fraction of people to these images get an eating disorder
x the average dress size in the west has increased over the last 60 years
what is the feminist approach?
- anorexia is the result of a patriarchal society telling women what they should look like
- 90-95% of those with eating disorders are female
- Obach says femininity involves self denial. Western culture promotes a chocolate bar and then a thin weight watchers advert. This is ‘naughty but nice’ if you choose the chocolate which is self denial.
evaluation of the feminist approach
+ looks at how eating disorders are bound up with the way femininity is constructed in society
+ helps understand women with eating disorders- they’re not abnormal, instead look at the contradictions in society
x doesn’t explain why males get ti
xdoesn’t explain why some get anorexia and some get binge eating
x lacks scientific support unlike biological
there are 2 parts to the psychodynamic approach, what are they?
the effective/ineffective parent and trauma in the oral stage