Literature Review: Eating Disorders

Literature Review: Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are characterized by conditions of abnormal eating habits or intake of insufficient or excessive food intake. These conditions are determined of physical, mental, or psychological health of an individual. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and diabulimia are specific and most common forms of eating disorders found in the United Kingdom. Binge-eating disorder and atypical eating disorder (such type of eating disorder that is not otherwise specified) are also considered as other type of eating disorder. These are often considered as psychological disorders that may create serious anomalies in the behavior of food consumption. Alternation of feed behaviour that includes weight loss and prolonged dieting are other outward symptoms of eating disorders. The origin and history of these disorders are related to the explanation from the perspective of mental disorders in the context of personal dissatisfaction and direct consequences of altered food intake.

Classification

The classification of different eating disorders is based upon those conditions that are presently recognized in the standards of medical annuals and are not presently recognized in the standards of medical manuals. This section will illustrate description on disorders that are characterized according to medical manuals i.e. ICD-10 and DSM-IV.

Anorexia Nervosa

Women, especially teenage women are prone towards this type of eating disorder. The ignorance of maintaining a healthy body weight with obsessive fear of weight gain characterizes Anorexia nervosa. These patients fall under the classification of atypical eating disorders. It increases the probability of heart related problems with higher risk of death. The postponement of altered food intake is the direct consequence of this disorder which is related to the height and weight of the body. Deterioration in cognitive and physical development is also part of anorexia nervosa.

Bulimia Nervosa

The continuous and rapid episodes of greed that is also known as recurrent binge eating with compensatory behaviours that includes purging. The symptoms of purging include excessive exercise, overuse of diuretics or laxatives, and self-induced vomiting. Over-exercising and fasting are other methods of binge eating or purging.

Diabulimia

This is a newly discovered eating disorder that affects those people who are suffering with type 1 diabetes. The characteristics of diabulimia include deliberate manipulation of insulin levels by these patients in order to control weight.

Binge-eating disorder

Compulsive overeating or binge eating disorder (BED) characterizes a person who possesses recurrent disorders for ingesting of large quantities of food without considering for what it is. This is recognized under medical manuals as Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (ENDOS). It is more common in anorexia or bulimia.

Compulsive Overeating

Compulsive overeating is the characteristic of binge eating disorder where individuals are prone to consume more that necessary and it results in more stress. Binge eating disorder is the cause of compulsive overeating.

Orthorexia nervosa

Steven Bratman characterizes this type of eating disorder as an obsession towards a pure diet for individuals to avoid eating unhealthy foods that interferes with a person's life. It is also known as Orthorexia that shows characteristics of excessive preoccupation with ignorance towards food that ...