The Eating Disorders

"...answers common questions about eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, as well as newly described conditions, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Practical yet authoritative, the book defines the eating disorders, explains what we know about them based on the latest science, and describes how treatment works. Importantly, the book dispels common myths about eating disorders..."--Page 4 of cover.

The eating disorders - anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and obesity -affect many thousands of people each year, particularly young women, though men as well. This comprehensive guide considers why eating disorders occur, and then looks at each in turn, describing the eating behaviours, diagnosis, and treatments available. This new edition has been fully revised and updated. Included is a new chapter explaining and providing advice on the problems someone with an eating disorder may face while pregnant, and after giving birth. An additional chapter looks at the problems that the family or friends of someone with an eating disorder may face, accepting that there is a problem, the feeling that somehow they are responsible, helplessness, and how they can cope and provide support and help for the sufferer Sympathetically and clearly written, the book provides an authoritative resource on eating disorders and how to treat them, one that will prove valuable for sufferers and their families.

Teens face powerful pressures to look a certain way. Body image is one of the most fragile areas to take hits on, especially if you're not pencil thin or the picture of athletic health. This volume talks candidly about eating disorders. It describes the different types of eating disorders, their prevalence in society, and what research suggests about causes and risk factors for having an eating disorder. Readers will learn how eating disorders are treated, the likelihood of recovery, and how people with eating disorders live with the disorder.

A comprehensive guide to the medical complications, diagnosis, and treatment of eating disorders. In this new edition of their best-selling work, Drs. Philip S. Mehler and Arnold E. Andersen provide a user-friendly and comprehensive guide to treating and managing eating disorders for primary care physicians, mental health professionals, worried family members and friends, and nonmedical professionals (such as teachers and coaches). Mehler and Andersen identify common medical complications that people who have eating disorders face and answer questions about how to treat both physical and behavioral aspects of eating disorders. Serious complications, including cardiac arrhythmia, electrolyte abnormalities, and gastrointestinal problems, are discussed in detail. Incorporating illustrative case studies, medical background on the complications, guidelines for diagnosis and treatment, and an up-to-date list of selected references, chapters provide comprehensive coverage of topics, including team treatment and nutritional rehabilitation. The authors also address special areas of concern, such as athletes who have eating disorders, males with eating disorders, and the pharmacological treatment of obesity. New topics include diabetes and eating disorders, osteoporosis, involuntary feeding, innovative psychological strategies, and ethical dilemmas.

Eating disorders are potentially life-threatening psychiatric illnesses commonly accompanied by serious medical problems. They typically appear during adolescence or early adulthood, a time when young people are heading to college or interviewing for a first job. Many people recover fully from eating disorders, but others become chronically ill, and symptoms can continue into middle age and beyond. Written by leading authorities in eating disorders research and treatment, Eating Disorders: What Everyone Needs to Know® answers common questions about eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, as well as a newly described condition, avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Practical yet authoritative, the book defines the eating disorders, explains what we know about them based on the latest science, and describes how treatment works. Importantly, the book dispels common myths about eating disorders, such as the notion that they occur only amongst the affluent, that they affect only girls and women, or that they simply result from environmental factors such as the fashion industry and society's obsession with thinness. In reality, as the book explains, there is substantial evidence that eating disorders are brain-based illnesses that do not discriminate, and that they have been around for a very long time. Eating Disorders: What Everyone Needs to Know® is essential reading for those seeking authoritative and current information about these often misunderstood illnesses.

This book accurately describes the cognitive processes that lead to and are present in someone with an eating disorder. Several case histories on individuals with anorexia nervosa and obesity are presented. It probes the emotional causes and effects of abnormal eating patterns.

Our understanding of eating disorders has improved markedly over the past 10 years since the publication of the previous edition of this volume. Early intervention is the key, as body dissatisfaction, obsession with thinness, and restrained and binge eating can be found in those as young as ten. Exploring prevention methods and therapeutic options,

Why is the brain important in eating disorders? This ground-breaking new book describes how increasingly sophisticated neuroscientific approaches are revealing much about the role of the brain in eating disorders. Even more importantly, it discusses how underlying brain abnormalities and dysfunction may contribute to the development and help in the treatment of these serious disorders. Neuropsychological studies show impairments in specific cognitive functions, especially executive and visuo-spatial skills. Neuroimaging studies show structural and functional abnormalities, including cortical atrophy and neural circuit abnormalities, the latter appearing to be playing a major part in the development of anorexia nervosa. Neurochemistry studies show dysregulation within neurotransmitter systems, with effects upon the modulation of feeding, mood, anxiety, neuroendocrine control, metabolic rate, sympathetic tone and temperature. The first chapter, by an eating disorders clinician, explains the importance of a neuroscience perspective for clinicians. This is followed by an overview of the common eating disorders, then chapters on what we know of them from studies of neuroimaging, neuropsychology and neurochemistry. The mysterious phenomenon of body image disturbance is then described and explained from a neuroscience perspective. The next two chapters focus on neuroscience models of eating disorders, the first offering an overview and the second a new and comprehensive explanatory model of anorexia nervosa. The following two chapters offer a clinical perspective, with attention on the implications of a neuroscience perspective for patients and their families, the second providing details of clinical applications of neuroscience understanding. The final chapter looks to the future. This book succinctly reviews current knowledge about all these aspects of eating disorder neuroscience and explores the implications for treatment. It will be of great interest to all clinicians (psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, dieticians, paediatricians, physicians, physiotherapists) working in eating disorders, as well as to neuroscience researchers.