Though eating disorder sufferers struggle with everything from eating nothing to eating everything, only two types of disorders have official diagnoses: anorexia and bulimia. All others fall into a catch-all category known as “Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS).”

“What most people don’t realize about eating disorders is that of the nearly 10 million Americans who suffer from these conditions, more than 60 percent are diagnosed with EDNOS.

The catch-all category includes many patients who fall just one or two criteria short of anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa: They haven’t stopped menstruating for three months in a row, for example. … Or they binge and purge once a week, instead of twice a week, as ‘official’ bulimics do.” [Source: The Daily Beast'

Because the EDNOS “diagnosis” is so vague, some clinicians, parents, insurance companies and patients fail to take it as seriously as they should. They figure a person diagnosed with EDNOS isn’t as sick when in fact they often have more health issues than people who are officially diagnosed with anorexia or bulimia.

Labels: diagnosis, treatment, awareness, ednos

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment

About one in 100 adults, mostly women, are affected by a little-known eating disorder called "sleep eating" (a disorder that often falls under the category "Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified" or EDNOS).

Sleep eaters get up as often as five times a night to eat, usually high-calorie foods that are high in sugar and fat. Some eat odd things such as paper or frozen foods. Many have been injured from using knives or walking into obstacles.

"Those who exhibit violence during sleep or scream or swear or masturbate or eat frozen ravioli or wander into the hallway in their underwear generally have no more of a psychological disorder than those who sleep peacefully at night," said University of Minnesota professor Carlos Schenck, an expert on sleep.

Labels: sleep, ednos

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment