Eating Disorders

Rebecca Puhl & Kelly D. Brownell

Individuals with eating disorders can present a complicated clinical problem to health care providers. Severity can be extreme, with substantial risks to psychosocial and physical functioning. The complex etiology of eating disorders, combined with high rates of relapse for some disorders, have prompted considerable research. This is important, given the high rates in females but also increasing problems in children, males, and ethnic minorities. This entry reviews the status of work on eating disorders by describing classification, diagnosis, epidemiology, etiology, and treatment. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder are covered. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) , four distinct eating disorders (ED) are classified: anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), eating disorder not otherwise specified (ED-NOS), and the research category of binge eating disorder (BED). While some diagnostic features are similar, there are central characteristics of each disorder. DSM-IV criteria for each of Table ...

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