Eating disorders include:
- Anorexia nervosa
- Bulimia nervosa
- Binge eating disorder
- Orthorexia
- Night eating syndrome
- Body Dysmorphic Disorder
They affect a large percentage of the population and are found in both sexes, while women are more often plagued.
They are inextricably linked to:
- Depression
- anxiety disorders
- stress of the western model of media exposure
Because they are diseases, eating disorders necessarily require the cooperation of a psychiatrist-psychotherapist in parallel with the nutritionist-dietitian for their final treatment.
Each of the eating disorders has a separate treatment and the family’s contribution is necessary to help the patient recover, as well as the training of the portion and the food in a familiar / friendly environment first and then outside the house and familiar places. Due to the risk of refeeding syndrome, weight gain is very slow, as is weight loss, depending on the disease.
There are also atypical forms of eating disorders, when they do not meet all the criteria according to DSM-5, however both their treatment and proper nutrition require monitoring by a nutritionist-dietitian and psychotherapy by a psychiatrist-psychotherapist, as in such cases, it is not the body that is sick, but the mind.
The sooner the diagnosis is made and the sooner treatment is given, the more likely the brain damage is to be reversible. However, if a person suffers from a chronic eating disorder and has restrictive or compensatory behaviors that have not been directly observed by their family environment, they may be at risk of recurrence of future weight fluctuations or critical periods in life.