A joint study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital has found that diagnostic criteria for eating disorders may be too strict. As a result, many of the sickest patients may not get properly diagnosed, or may not get the help they need.
“’There’s mounting evidence that we should reconsider the EDNOS [eating disorder not otherwise specified] categorization for young people,’ said Rebecka Peebles, MD, the study’s primary author. The EDNOS diagnosis has become a ‘mosh pit,’ lumping dissimilar patients into a single category that gets poor recognition from clinicians and health insurers.” (Source: Science Daily)
The research team examined medical records of 1,310 patients that were treated for anorexia. Nearly two-thirds of the patients had been diagnosed with EDNOS because they didn’t meet specific anorexia or bulimia criteria. However, 60 percent of the EDNOS patients were sick enough to require hospitalization, and they were generally sicker than patients who had been diagnosed with full-blown anorexia or bulimia.
Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton
