Eating Disorders Flashcards
What does this image depict?
Healthy attitudes concerning food and body weight and the transitions that lead to disordered eating.
What are the three types of eating disorders ?
Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge-eating disorder.
What does nervosa refer to ?
An attitude of disgust with ones own body.
What are characteristics shared by bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa?
- Serious health issues can result, including death.
- There is a genetic factor
- Other issues such as depression, anxiety disorder and substance abuse can be involved
- No simple cause or treatment for the disorders, relating to the fact that the causes can be complex due to a variety of factors
- Not exclusively a food issue but may be related to lack of coping mechanisms and dysfunctional relaitionships. Food is just something that can be controlled
What does anorexia nervosa translate into ?
A denial of appetite.
What are some characteristics of anorexia nervosa?
Extreme weigh loss measures through starvation,
fear of becoming obese
distorted body image
Competitive and obsessive tendancies revolving around strict discipline and self denial of food, which becomes the focus
Rituals involving food and excessive exercise and calorie counting are common
Who is most at risk of developing anorexia nervosa?
Adolescent and teenage females; once thought to mostly affect the middle and upper class of Caucasian females, the risk factor is spread across all ethnic groups.
Warning signs of anorexia ?
Distorted body image leads to low self esteem and abnormal eating habits
Wearing baggy clothes and weighing ones self frequently
Obsessing about food in terms of weight control, thinking about food, watching others eat
Going to extremes to avoid eating
Self critical and tendancy to withdraw from family and friends
Intense fear of becoming fat or gaining weight
What kind of physical and psychological effects does anorexia have on the body
What is the ironic and sad truth of anorexia ?
The anorexic person views themselves in a distorted way and thinks they are fat when in reality they are wasting away. They are depriving their body of needed nutrients in adequate amounts.
What are clinical guidelines for a diagnosis of anorexia?
Body weight less than 85% of the normal for persons age, height and gender
and a BMI less than or equal to 17
What serious effects does anorexia have ?
Hormonal changes, lower body temperature, slow heart rate, decreased immune system and loss of mentrual periods.
Death can result if left untreated.
What treatment options are there ?
Outpatient therapy to start with involves a physician, dietician, psychologist and involvement of other family members is important to the outcome.
Hospitalization may be necessary
Gain confidence and trust of patient, help them recognize their disorder
Establish first healthier and adequate eating habits, learning to respond to natural hunger cues and promoting a healthy attitude towards food
and then through Cognitive behavior therapy and more, address the psychological issues
What is the long term goal of recovering from anorexia?
What is the current recovery time?
Having a BMI of 20 or greater.
Current recovery time is 7 years or greater.
What is bulimia nervosa ?
An eating disorder in which large quantities of food are consumed over a short time period.
There is a binge cycle in which once the binge has happened, the sufferer has a great desire to get rid of the excess calories through laxatives or purging.
Restriction and excecssive excercise usually follows purging until the binge craving returns and the cycle continues.
What is a difference between the behavior of sufferers from anorexia and bulimia?
Those with anorexia tend to be very controlled while bulimics tend to be impulsive and have difficulty controlling their impulses.
Bulimics are aware that they have an eating disorder and often end up battling a vicious cycle of binging-purging-restriction and exccessive excercise.
What can trigger a binge for bulimia sufferers?
stress, boredom, loneliness and depression
What is the criteria to diagnose bulimia?
The criteria are based on a binge purge cycle at least twice a week for 3 months, a lack of control over behavior fluctuating between consumption of inordinately large quantities of food in a short time period with attempts to restrict food
Those with bulimia deal with a ___________ cycle, involving bouts of binging, ___________, restriction and ____________ excercise.
binge, purging, exccessive excercise
Effects on the body from Bulimia
Demineralization of the teeth related to erosion from the stomach acids, burns on the knuckles related to the vomiting and swollen salivary glands are common amongst the bulimic population.
Treatment options for Bulimia
Team approach
Address the binging and decrease amount of food consumed in a sitting
By addressing the quantity consumed, the frequency of purging will decline and allow healing of the esophagus and decrease damage to the teeth.
CBT is used to address self esteem and decrease concern with body weight
Learning to cope with stressful situations, controlling their impulsive behaviors and relearning normal patterns of eating will help an individual overcome this disorder. In certain cases medication may be prescribed to help the patient achieve success.
What classification is reserved for those who have eating disorders that are not anorexia or bulimia?
Eatng Disorders Not Otherwise Specified
What are disorders classifed under Eating Disorders Not Otherwise specified ?
Binge-eating disorder, night eating syndrome and the female athlete triad
What is binge eating disorder?
Compulsive and excessive consumption of food -binge eating episodes are not accompanied by purging
. Characteristics include a lack of control over how much food is consumed and what is eaten, eating rapidly until feeling uncomfortable, eating alone due to embarrassment and feeling disgusted, depressed or guilty after over eating.
