A 14-year-old Utah girl was told she had bulimia because she could not keep her food down until doctors realised she actually had a rare neurological disorder. (Source: the Mail online | Health)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

While the start of college is a positive, momentous event for many young people, it also can be an episode that pushes some into a dangerous battle with eating disorders, says a psychologist who fought her own battle against bulimia as a college student. Hear her story. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

One underlying cause that surprises many women during treatment for an eating disorder is the relationship an adolescent girl has with her mother, according to Catherine Weigel Foy, a family therapist at Timberline Knolls Residential Treatment Center, a leading eating disorder center. Young girls suffering with eating disorders often think the physical aspects of their disease call for the most healing, but in most all instances, girls have to recognize the psychological and emotional damage caused by anorexia or bulimia, too... (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Conclusion: The prevalence rates of body image dissatisfaction and anorexia and bulimia symptoms were high. Nutritional status seems to be a better predictor of body image dissatisfaction. (Source: Revista de Psiquiatria do Rio Grande do Sul)

Conclusions: Although women self-reported higher depression severity, more severe general psychopathological symptoms and lower health status, no differences in disease severity were found on interviewer ratings. These findings could have implications for clinical decision making and treatment. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

(Source: J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci)MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating can be linked to depression. A guide to depression and eating disorders, and finding effective treatment for both. (Source: WebMD Health)

This study evaluated inter-rater reliability between research and clinical diagnoses, identified discrepantly rated diagnostic criteria, and evaluated ED subtype use in a naturalistic treatment setting. Seventy-six adolescent and young adult female patients consecutively admitted to a residential ED program were evaluated independently by clinicians (unstructured clinical interview) and research assessors (Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV). Clinicians and research assessors conferred concordant ED diagnoses in 80.3% of cases (κ=0.70), thus highlighting the clinical utility of the extant DSM-IV diagnostic scheme in this specialty ED treatment setting. All but two discordant cases included a diagnosis of ED not otherwise specified (EDNOS). Clinicians applied ED subtypes in just 20.4...

We investigated body-related attentional biases in eating disorders by testing whether individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN, n = 19) and bulimia nervosa (BN, n = 18) differ from healthy controls (HC, n = 21) in their bias for attending to a photo of their own body (self-photo) relative to a photo of a matched control participant's body (other photo). In a modified dot-probe task, self- and other photos served as cues on the left and the right of the screen. After 1 of 2 time intervals, 1 of the photos was singled out by a surrounding frame, and participants had to saccade toward it. Saccade latency was used as an index of covert attention to the cue photos. In the AN group, saccades were faster when the self-photo was the target than when the other photo was the target. In the BN group, t...

(Source: Diseases of the Esophagus)

Eating disorders, which are associated with a host of adverse medical morbidities, negative psychological sequelae, and considerable reductions in quality of life, should be diagnosed and treated promptly. However, primary care physicians may find it uniquely challenging to detect eating disorders in their early stages, before obvious physical problems arise and while psychological symptoms are subtle. Although psychological symptoms may dominate the presentation, the physician is an integral member of the treatment team and is in a unique role to diagnose and treat eating disorders. This clinical review surveys the eating disorders literature, identified by searching MEDLINE and PubMed for articles published from January 1, 1983, to September 30, 2009, using the following keywords: anorex...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

I will never forget the night my 6′3″ tall, slender brother and his even taller, slender friend bought two tickets for the 7:15 p.m. showing of the movie “Troy,” starring an unusually ripped and rippled Brad Pitt. At 10:30 that same night my phone rang, and I heard my brother say to me, “My friend and I have decided that we need to go to the gym. We think we need to get in shape.” They went out for a night of light cinematic escapism and came back with body esteem issues. Two perfectly healthy, well adjusted, intelligent, funny, fit, and loving human beings had not changed that much in just three hours — at least on the outside. But something on the inside had obviously changed. The American Heart Association reports that as of January 2010, 58 percent of ...

The study compared the prevalence, correlates of functional impairment, and service utilization for eating disorders across Latinos, Asians, and African Americans living in the United States to non-Latino Whites.Pooled data from the NIMH Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Studies (CPES;NIMH, 2007) were used.The prevalence of anorexia nervosa (AN) and binge-eating disorder (BED) were similar across all groups examined, but bulimia nervosa (BN) was more prevalent among Latinos and African Americans than non-Latino Whites. Despite similar prevalence of BED among ethnic groups examined, lifetime prevalence of any binge eating (ABE) was greater among each of the ethnic minority groups in comparison to non-Latino Whites. Lifetime prevalence of mental health service utilization was lower a...

Bulimia nervosa and other eating disorders have been on the increase for the past half century. Self-induced vomiting is often practiced as a method of weight control in these patients, potentially causing acidic damage to the esophagus of the kind observed in cases of gastresophageal reflux disease. To ascertain whether patients suffering from bulimia nervosa had an increased rate of reflux-related symptoms, potentially placing them at risk of developing sequelae such as Barrett's esophagus and esophageal adenocarcinoma, a literature review was performed via searches of databases including PubMed, Medline, OVID and PsycINFO and a recursive search of the literature. The search terms were: bulimia nervosa; reflux; esophageal adenocarcinoma; Barrett's esophagus; eating disorders; oral; denta...

New evidence; conclusion confirmed for: CBT for bulimia nervosa One systematic review updated, no new RCTs added from this systematic review. Categorisation unchanged (Likely to be beneficial). CBT plus exposure/response prevention therapy One systematic review updated, no new evidence found. Categorisation unchanged (Unknown effectiveness). Pure or unguided self-help CBT One systematic review updated, no new RCTs found. Categorisation unchanged (Unknown-effectiveness). Guided self-help CBT One systematic review added. It found one RCT, which did not meet Clinical Evidence inclusion criteria for this review. Categorisation unchanged (Unknown effectiveness). Interpersonal psychotherapy One syst...MedWorm Message: Register for MedMatcha, MedWorm's medical advertising network, and receive $5 free advertising.

Conclusions: BMS patients showed no pH differences from C group. The mucosa of BN and GERD patients was significantly acidic relative with controls; thus this simple technique may serve as a diagnostic tool for identifying gastro-esophageal conditions. (Source: Oral Diseases)

Authors: Lopez-de-Andres A, Carrasco-Garrido P, Hernández-Barrera V, Gil-de-Miguel A, Jiménez-Trujillo I, Jiménez-García R The study describes and analyzes the hospitalizations due to eating disorders (EDs) among children and adolescents during 1998-2007 in Spain. We conducted a retrospective study of national hospitalization data using the Minimum Basic Data Set. Hospitalization rates were calculated for EDs among children and adolescents aged 10-18 years. Length of hospital stay (median), psychiatric comorbidities, medical conditions and mortality rates were analyzed. There were a total of 10,569 EDs admissions during the period of study. The median length of hospital stay was greater in patients with anorexia than in those with bulimia (14 vs. 9 days). The most common ps...

Food presented in a virtual reality environment causes the same emotional responses as real food. Researchers compared the responses of people with anorexia and bulimia, and a control group, to the virtual and real-life snacks, suggesting that virtual food can be used for the evaluation and treatment of eating disorders. (Source: ScienceDaily Headlines)

Food presented in a virtual reality (VR) environment causes the same emotional responses as real food. Scientists writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Annals of General Psychiatry compared the responses of people with anorexia and bulimia, and a control group, to the virtual and real-life snacks, suggesting that virtual food can be used for the assessment and therapy of eating disorders........ (Source: Medicineworld.org: New Article Alert)

This article reviews the evidence supporting CBT in the treatment of eating disorders and provides an account of the “transdiagnostic” theory that underpins the enhanced form of the treatment. It ends with an outline of the treatment's main strategies and procedures. (Source: The Psychiatric Clinics of North America)