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Binge Eating Disorder Essay

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Eating disorders can be defined as a definite disturbance of eating habits or weight-control behavior. Eating disorders are one of the significant cause of physical and psychosocial morbidity in both men and women, especially in teen age girls or young women, while much less for men. Eating disorders can be put into three diagnostic classes: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and atypical eating disorders. These three types of eating disorders are closely related to each other, and patients can often move between them. There is also binge eating disorder, which is of a different nature to the other three types and will be discussed separately. The causes of eating disorder is rather complicated and very poorly understood. They involve social, psychological, and biological aspects and are difficult to treat. Researches on treatments for eating disorders is mainly focused on bulimia and a form of cognitive behaviour therapy is found to be the most effective treatment.

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Sometimes the binge eating is followed by self-induced vomiting and/or the use of laxatives. The repeated undereating and overeating in bulimia patients usually results in a suboptimal bodyweight. In comparison to anorexia, bulimia patients are often easier to comply with treatments because most of them are ashamed of their binge eating. Depression and anxiety disorders are also significant in bulimia patients. Researches suggested that the incidence rate of bulimia increased sharply between the year 1980 and 1983 and remained quite constant till 1990, but had a threefold increase in 1993. Atypical eating disorders are similar to anorexia and bulimia, but just do not meet the full criteria for the diagnosis. For example, the weight of the patient could be just close to the threshold, or she still has her menstrual

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