Eating Disorders Blog

Mental health experts are continuing their debate over where to include binge eating disorder in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V, which is scheduled to be published in 2013).

Some experts are arguing that binge eating disorder is just another form of overeating, and since 67 percent of Americans are overweight, they cannot all be mentally ill.

However, Chevese Turner, chairman of the Binge Eating Disorder Association, believes the disorder should be included, noting that only 3.5 percent of women and 2 percent of men suffer from it.

In order to be diagnosed with binge eating disorder, the person must experience shame, guilt and a lack of control during episodes of over eating. The disorder often starts in the teen years, and 70 percent of those who have it are obese. Most suffer from depression, anxiety, and other addictions.

"The official definition of the binge eating is consuming a large amount of food in a brief time, usually under two hours," said Dr. Cindy Bulik, director of the Eating Disorders Program at the University of North Carolina. "The kicker is feeling out of control. This is not the Super Bowl or Thanksgiving -- it has to include an out-of-control feeling. Forty-one percent of liability to binge eating disorder is due to genetic factors. The rest is due to environment."

Labels: binge-eating, dsm-iv

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Though anorexia and bulimia are the most well-known eating disorders, the majority of sufferers fit into another category. As many as 60 percent of eating disorder patients are diagnosed as having an eating disorder “not otherwise specified” (EDNOS).

“This group is so vast, and the causes within it so diverse, that many in the field believe it creates more problems than it does solutions in terms of treating patients and understanding the syndromes. Patients lumped into this unspecified group can also have misperceptions about their condition, thinking it is not as serious as anorexia or bulimia.” [Source: MSNBC]

Physicians and psychiatrists are trying to solve the problem by revising the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), which is due to be published in 2013. Often called “the psychiatric bible”, the DSM is the tool used to diagnose most mental health issues.

Proposed revisions to eating disorder-related diagnoses include broadening the criteria for anorexia and bulimia, and separating out some more commonly-known conditions such as binge eating into their own categories.

 

Labels: dsm-iv, diagnosis, ednos

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 0 Comments