Eating Disorders Flashcards
1
Q
With what demographic are eating disorders most prevalent?
A
- Mostly young females.
2
Q
Put anoeria nervosa into perspective lad.
A
Incidence of anorexia nervosa in adolescence greater than both type 1 Diabetes and Inflammatory Bowel Disease
3
Q
Outline the SCOFF QUestionnaire.
A
Used as a screening tool for eating disorder.
If patients score 2 or more positive answers, then an eating disorder is likely:
- Do you make yourself Sick because you feel uncomfortably full?
- Do you worry you have lost Control over how much you eat?
- Have you recently lost more than One stone (14 pounds or 6.35 kg) in a three month period?
- Do you believe yourself to be Fat when others say you are too thin?
- Would you say that Food dominates your life?
4
Q
Generally outline anorexia nervosa.
A
- Restriction of intake to reduce weight
- Relies on compulsive compensatory behaviours when food cannot be avoided
- Self induced vomiting
- laxative abuse
- excessive exercise
- abuse of appetite suppressants / diuretics
- Considered anorexic if he/she is 15% below ideal body weight/BMI 17.5 or <
- Fear of weight gain
- [In postmenarchal females, absence of the menstrual cycle or amenorrhoea (greater than 3 cycles)]
5
Q
What are the signs and symptoms of Anoxrexia nervosa?
(theres loads)
A
Think symptoms caused by energy being diverted to more important places, and leaving extremities etc.
- Cold intolerance
- Blue hands and feet
- Constipation
- Bloating - if reduces peristalsis
- Delayed puberty
- Primary or secondary amenorrhea
- Dry skin
- Fainting
- Hypotension
- Lanugo hair
- Scalp hair loss
- Early satiety
- Weakness, fatigue
- Short stature
- Osteopenia & osteoporosis
6
Q
Outline Bulimia Nervosa
A
- Episodes of binge eating with a sense of loss of control
- Binge eating is followed by compensatory behaviour of the purging type (self-induced vomiting, laxative abuse, diuretic abuse) or nonpurging type (excessive exercise, fasting, or strict diets).
- Binges and the resulting compensatory behaviour must occur a minimum of two times per week for three months
- Dissatisfaction with body shape and weight
7
Q
What are the signs and symtpoms of Bulimia Nervosa?
A
- Mouth sores
- Pharyngeal trauma
- Dental caries
- Heartburn, chest pain
- Esophageal rupture - severe and repetitive vomiting.
- Impulsivity:
- Stealing
- Alcohol abuse
- Drugs/tobacco
- Muscle cramps
- Weakness
- Bloody diarrhoea
- Irregular periods
- Fainting
- Swollen parotid glands
- hypotension
8
Q
Oultine binge eating disorder.
A
- Similar to bulimia nervosa; absence of purging behaviours.
- Ongoing and/or repetitive cycles often include
- unusually fast eating, usually alone.
- unusually large amounts consumed.
- uncomfortably full; often “buzzed” after eating.
- embarrassment, shame, guilt, depression.
9
Q
How do people sufferenign from eating disroders avoid intaking calories?
A
- Diets - vegetarian, vegan
- Non touching food or greasy food
- pickiness & “allergires”
- Interpreting all symptoms as allergy or indigestion
- Eat v slow, only at certain times
- Avoid parties and social occasions
- Spoiling or messing of food, bizarre combinations
- Refusing to eat more than the least, rules about always finishing last
- Medication abuse
- Appetite suppressants
- gum, cigs, alternative OTC etc.
- Appetite suppressants
10
Q
How can being with eating disorders get ris of consumed calories?
A
- Self-induced vomiting
- Chewing & spitting out
- Overexercise – often secret
- Overactivity –
- obsessive housework
- fidgeting
- twitching
- never sitting down
- fetching one item at a time
- carrying heavy loads
- Cooling – inadequate dress, open windows etc
- Blood letting
- Medication abuse –
- including alternative, OTC & www medications
- excessive caffeine and stimulant consumption – laxatives, ipecac, pain killers to allow exercise despite damage
11
Q
What behaviours may be observed in those with eating disorders?
A
- ‘Body-checking’– repeated weighing, mirror gazing, self-measurment, self-photographing, trying on particular tight clothes
- Displaying emaciation to elicit reassuringly shocked attention
- Cruising ‘pro-ana’ websites/facebooking/emailing fellow sufferers
- Competing with self and others to attain lower and lower targets
- Compulsive browsing of gossip magazines and websites – celebrities, ‘thinspirations’
- Deliberate self harm if ‘rules’ are broken
12
Q
What are the psycological consequnces of eating disorders?
A
- The core psychopathology
-
extreme overvaluation of low weight & thin/lean shape
- resembles religious belief, with the ‘adherents’ willing to sacrifice even other highly valued things to the cause
-
extreme overvaluation of low weight & thin/lean shape
- Obsessive weight-losing feels like a solution, not a problem
- Cognitive style shows reduced central coherence & narrowed focus of interest – a difficulty in seeing the ‘bigger picture’
- And a starved person is unable to interpret emotion – as in Aspergers - but this does improve with better nutrition
- Malnourished brains experience depression, anxiety, obsessionality and loss of concentration on anything but food.
- Depression at low weight rarely responds to medication.
- People who rely on eating-disordered behaviour to ‘solve’ their problems fail to develop other ways to cope with life, tolerate distress or feel rewarded and fulfilled
- Anxiety eating in company, followed by guilt after eating.
13
Q
What are the social consequences of eating disorders?
A
- Eating disorders turn others into obstacles to their image etc.
- Normal people are forced to
- lie and cheat about eating concerns.
- Suffer withdraw from friends and lose interests in sexual relationships.
14
Q
What are the physcial consequences of eating disorders?
A
- Starvation impact
- physical damage
- poor repair and resistance
- heart damage
- reduced immunity
- to infections
- anaemia
- bone loss
- fertility problems
- Impact of purging behaviours
- neurochemical disruption
- special damage to the brain and heart
- Potassium is only one crude measure of this
- neurochemical disruption
- Wider impact on young people
- growth impaired
- height
- pubertal development
- brain growth impaired
- These show why re-nutrition is so important in younger people.
15
Q
What are some of the causes of anorexia?
A
- Genetic predisposition – OCD, anxiety disorders, perfectionism
- Perinatal factors
- Life events – and traumas
- Perpetuating consequences of starvation and of avoidance
