Obesity and overeating will not be listed as mental disorders in the latest addition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Diseases (DSM). However, the editors of the newest "physician's Bible" will add binge eating to their list of official eating disorders, according to Dr. Timothy Walch, who is chairing DSM work group in this area.

He said there is not enough hard evidence to support a psychiatric diagnosis for either overeating or obesity, noting "we have to follow the field, not lead it."

The DSM is used by physicians to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder, and eating disorders not otherwise specified will be the only ones in the new edition of the book.

In order to be diagnosed as a binge eater, a person must have three of the following symptoms

1. Eating more rapidly than normal.
2. Eating until uncomfortably full
3. Eating large amounts of food when not hungry
4. Eating alone because of embarrassment about the amounts consumed
5. Feeling disgusted, depressed or guilty after overeating episodes.

Dr. Walsh said they also loosened the criteria for anorexia. An anorexic can now be someone of "markedly low weight," rather than 85 percent of recommended body weight, and a lack of menstrual periods has been taken off the list of symptoms. A person can now be diagnosed as bulimic if purging episodes occur only once a week, as opposed to twice a week in the current DSM.
 

Labels: diagnosis, binge eating, dsm

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

College cheerleaders are prone to eating disorders, and how severe their disordered eating becomes partly depends on how revealing their cheerleading costumes are, according to research from the University of South Carolina.

Prof. Toni Torres-McGehee and her colleagues found that 33% of the 136 college cheerleaders in their study had eating disorders, compared to less than 5% of all female college students. However, if their cheerleading team had a costume that reveals the midriff, they were most likely to have an eating disorder.

"Teams and coaches should consider the long-term effect of requiring cheerleaders to wear revealing uniforms simply for aesthetic reasons," Dr. Torres-McGehee said in a report presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine.
 

Labels: college_students, body image, influences

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

According to a post on the Eating-Disorder.com Blog, the second annual Rocky Mountain Eating Disorders Conference is scheduled for Aug. 13-14 in Denver, Colorado:

“’In the eating disorders community, clinical collaboration leads to treatment innovations, best practice development and ultimately, better outcomes for our patients,’ said Kenneth Weiner, MD, CEDS, founding partner and medical director of Eating Recovery Center.”

Keynote sessions and workshops will cover such topics as: medical complications of anorexia and bulimia; new models of family therapy; and, understanding the adolescent brain when treating eating disorders.

More information is available by emailing info@eatingrecoverycenter.com.

Labels: conference

Posted By: Eating Disorders Help Guide 0 Comments

Jeremy Gillitzer was in his mid-30s when he contacted a local newspaper in the fall of 2007 and offered to tell his story. Weighing just 88 pounds, he suffered from anorexia – a disorder more commonly associated with young women. On June 7, the reporter who originally interviewed Jeremy made the sad announcement that he had died.

“I [had] visited Jeremy at Methodist Hospital’s Eating Disorder Institute, bringing him a book to help him pass the time,: Jeremy Hoffman wrote. "He was the only male in a ward full of women, all of them with the hollow, wispy look common to advanced anorexia.” [Source: Minneapolis City Pages]

Gillitzer wanted to reach as many people as possible, in the hopes that some would be deterred from engaging in disordered eating habits. Though his voice has been silenced, his story will continue to educate people about the very real dangers of anorexia and other eating disorders among men.

Labels: men, anorexia, death

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

A study conducted by the government of Germany has found a dramatic increase in the number of web sites that promote and encourage eating disorders. According to a report titled “Youth Protection on the Internet,” the government found 328 pro-eating disorder sites in 2009, a huge jump from the 250 that were found the year before.

“[The study] noted that operators of the websites were often young people with eating disorders who were not interested in therapy. The websites used slogans like ‘being thin is more important than being healthy,’ and showed pictures of extremely thin women.” [Source: Earth Times]

The study also found that these web sites primarily attracted girls who were 16-years-old and younger.

Labels: pro-ana, pro-mia, internet

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

The human brain may perceive the human body as shorter and fatter than it actually is. This perception may be the reason that people suffering from eating disorders do not see themselves as "starvation thin," according to a new study from University College London.

• Dr. Matthew Longo, of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, asked people to put their left hands under a cover, and then locate their knuckles and fingertips.
• Participants estimated that their hands were about 66 percent wider and 33 percent shorter than they actually were.
• Dr. Longo believes that such misperceptions might apply to other parts of the body.

"Our participants were very accurate in picking out a photo of their own hand from a set of photos with various distortions of hand shape," said Dr. Longo. "There is clearly a conscious visual image of the body, but that visual image seems not to be used for position sense."

"Position sense" is the ability to know where all parts of your body are in space even when your eyes are closed.

"These findings may be relevant to psychiatric conditions involving body image such as anorexia nervosa, as there may be a general bias toward perceiving the body to be wider than it is," said Dr. Longo.

Therapists who treat anorexia and other eating disorders often report how clients perceive themselves to be overweight even when they are at a point of dangerous starvation.

Dr. Longo's study, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
 

Labels: self-esteem, self-image_issues

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Teenagers who read celebrity gossip magazines are more likely to have eating disorders, according to new study from Great Britain.

• Dr. James White of Cardiff University and Dr. Emma Halliwell of University of the West of England studied 546 children ages 11 to 16 years old from South Wales in terms of their use of media and eating behaviors.
• Although television viewing and reading other kinds of magazines were not factors for eating disorders, reading celebrity gossip magazines was.

"This study suggests that there should be a greater awareness of the potential impact of exposure to the kind of images of celebrities and models in gossip magazines can have on adolescents' eating habits," said Dr. White. "(Such exposure) increases the risk in adolescent boys and girls of using unhealthy eating behaviors without their awareness of being influenced."

The study was presented at the Appearance Matters conference in Bristol, a conference highlighting research around appearance-related issues for adolescents.
 

Labels: media_influences, causes of eating disorders

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Despite a 10-year effort by search engines such as Yahoo and MSN to shut down websites that promote eating disorders, many are still operating and promoting anorexia and bulimia as positive lifestyle choices.

According to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health, over 90 percent of these websites are open to the public, 83 percent provide advice on how to engage in eating disordered behaviors, and only 38 percent include links or information on how to recover from eating disorders.

"Pro-ana," "pro-mia," and "thinspiration" websites usually have pictures of emaciated young women, often attractive celebrities and models. Contributors often discuss the themes of success, control, perfection, and solidarity, according to the study. Most advise people who criticize the lifestyle to leave the website.

Labels: pro-ana, pro-mia, websites

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

Some teenage girls want to find Prince Charming; others want to take on the world and be the first woman president.

Crystal Renn wanted to have a gap between her upper thighs like the models she admired.

• Crystal's diet became steamed vegetables three times a day with a protein shake at lunch, and sugar-free game and Diet Coke for snacks.
• When she went out for dinner, she would tell the server, "I'll have the lettuce."
• She joined two gyms so people would not notice how often she worked out.
• On weekends, she worked out four hours a day. She frequently passed out from exhaustion.
• Later she deplored how she looked in her pictures at that time, writing that her face had a blank stare, probably because all she was thinking about was food.

Crystal has overcome her disordered eating, and now has a successful career as a plus-size model. But the pain and suffering she endured in pursuit of an unrealistic (and unhealthy) body is all too familiar to the tens of thousands of women and men who remain in the throes of

and other forms of disordered eating.

Labels: body image, dieting, calorie_restriction

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment