Eating Disorders Assessment

First, I took the “Do I have an Eating Disorder Quiz?”, which intended to measure any extreme symptoms of eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. Next I took the Grief quiz, designed to help people understand if they are affected by complicated grief stemming from the death or loss of a loved one. I picked these assessments out initially because they contained more questions, and are both directly related to my life.

Norm group reliability was assessed across groups (N = 1980) female patients (US adult (n = 983), international clinical population (n = 662), and a US adolescent clinical population (n = 335)) who already met the diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder (Atlas, 2007). Across the three normative groups, and diagnostic categories (ANR, ANB, BN, EDNOS) a composite T-score

According to the Eating Disorder Coalition, many individuals struggle with sub-clinical disordered behaviors and body dissatisfaction issues as they experience the same distortions, which can include selective attention, dichotomous thinking, making comparisons, scapegoating, projection, predicting the future and emotional reasoning (Eating Disorder Coalition, 2009). Most research suggests that individuals who suffer from high stress levels, loneliness, ad parental neglect often experience eating disorders but do not receive specialized care due to the lack of public education and treatment availability. Reliable and valid eating symptoms measures were utilized in the assessment of Veronica’s experience of loss of control, one of which was the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI-3). Research suggests that the EDI-3 is perhaps one of the most widely used self-report measures of constructs shown to be clinically relevant in individuals with eating disorders (Psychological Assessment Resources EDI-3, 2012). According to Garner (2004) the EDI-3 would be most beneficial for assessing Veronica’s current risk factors and measuring the existing traits associated with eating disorders; Garner, 2004).

Subjective: Client appeared to be upset and anxious when she first entered the room for her session. While address the incident which happened during class the clients’ affect appeared to be flat and she displayed little emotion. This is different from last week session because the client was engaging during the session and appeared to be in a good mood at the beginning of the session.

The brain is a changing part of the body. During a lifetime, many think that their bodies are not the way society says they should be. Because of the disfigured views of their bodies, people begin to develop eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. According to Mental Health by Jennifer Hurley, symptoms of anorexia include an unhealthy and unnatural fear of gaining weight, even if the person affected is at a stable body weight. The book continues on by saying that this eating disorder is a mental disorder that may be caused by academic, social, and family problems (Hurley 33). Anorexia nervosa can be treated by therapy.

In modern American culture, health and food are a serious issue. We have all heard how to eat healthy: how many calories is too much, which foods to eat, which foods to avoid, and so on. However, very few people eat a truly healthy diet but some people have eating habits so unhealthy that it is considered a psychiatric disorder. These disorders are classified as eating disorders. Ever since the middle of the twentieth century, eating disorders have been increasingly more common (Barlow & Durand, 2015). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013), eating disorders include a wide range of symptoms and fall under these classifications: pica, rumination disorder,

Academy for Eating Disorder states that, eating disorders are characterized by a recurring pattern of unhealthy eating attitudes resulting to problems regarding health, emotional, and social problems. Alternatively, ED is also defined as an insistent disturbance of one`s eating attitudes with intent to control weight and actually affects their health negatively (Walsh and Fairburn, 2002). Eating Disorder is usually common to women, but is not limited to them. Both genders, male and female, in various ages can also suffer from it. Now that male population are openly expressing vanity, there are now more than twice as many men having ED today, than there was ten years ago.

Eating disorders are one of the most prevalent mental disorders in the United States. Although this disease is typically viewed as a female disorder, males are greatly affected and may go undiagnosed and untreated due to the attached stigma. Thus, it is important to understand the risk factors associated with the development of eating disorders in males. These risk factors include: athletic involvement, sexual orientation, pre-morbid obesity, and adverse childhood experiences. Eating disorder type and symptom presentation also varies between males and females. Males typically do not meet the criteria to be categorized as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa, causing their condition to be classified as Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified. Symptom presentation is likely to include binge eating and excessive exercise rather than restrictive eating, purging, or other compensatory methods commonly seen in the female population. Several eating disorder assessments are available for use in clinical practice, most of which have been geared toward the female gender. New assessments, such as the Eating Disorder Assessment for Males, have been developed recently to try to hone in on the typical male symptomatology and their psychological processes. Prompt treatment of eating disorders, regardless of gender, is necessary to prevent the development of medical and psychological comorbidities. This process cannot begin until the diagnosis has been made; therefore, additional

Physical exercise is inarguably healthy for the normal body functions as well as the overall good physical health. Consequently, many people take exercises to achieve the ultimate benefit of good health. However, a compulsive or compensatory need to take exercise could be an indicator of underlying problem of disordered eating habits. It pragmatic to monitor one’s exercising habits in order to increase chances of early detection of any underlying disordered eating habits.

The EDI, as a multifaceted instrument and as one of the most widely used assessment tools, provides a standardized rating scale, which is used internationally (Garner, 1984). Eating disorder specialists frequently use EDI with adolescents who experience symptoms and present psychological features of eating disorders. According to the user’s manual, EDI-3 asses associated risk factors and outcomes of treatment and it can be used to assess the DSM-IV-TR diagnoses of Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Eating Disorders Not Otherwise Specified (Garner, 2004). However, the EDI-3 does not assess Binge Eating Disorders (Atlas, 2007). The EDI-3 is appropriate to use with females ages 13-53 (2007). In addition, EDI is used internationally not only in clinical settings but in research too (Clausen, Rosenvinge, Friborg, & Rokkedal, 2011). EDI is constructed to inventory the severity of eating disorders (Garner, 1984).

The mortality from eating disorders is known to be elevated—this is true for all-cause mortality and suicide, with evidence pointing to suicide mortality being higher in eating disorders than in any other psychiatric illness. However, most mortality research concerning eating disorders directs attention to anorexia nervosa. Limited evidence to date suggests that the mortality risk is low for bulimia nervosa and ‘eating disorder not otherwise specified’ in comparison to anorexia nervosa. I was surprised given the medical problems related with laxative abuse and purging behaviors such as vomiting. Additionally, given the association with impulsivity, the intense mood swings, and the anxiety seen in bulimia nervosa patients, it is bewildering that the detected suicide rates in bulimia nervosa have not been higher. Furthermore, EDNOS, which is a catch-all diagnose for patients with significant features of eating disorders not meeting the criteria for just AN or BN, is the most common eating disorder diagnosis in nearly all community and clinic-based studies; and still, virtually nothing is known about the complications associated with EDNOS, specifically mortality.

In honor of National Eating Disorder Awareness week, I decided to open up about part of my past. I mentioned in my last post that I had struggled with an eating disorder, and I decided to further explain the thoughts that used to run through my mind- or rather, the lies that I told myself when I was in the midst of this.

Eating disorders are generally characterized by any range of abnormal or disturbed eating habits. The previous DSM editions referenced eating disorders throughout the text, whereas the DSM-5 contains all of the eating disorders in one chapter titled, “Feeding and Eating Disorders”. Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa have endured some changes in the revision of the DSM-5, while there were additional disorders added. Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder and binge eating disorder were two disorders that have been introduced in the DSM-5. The severity of eating disorders is also a new system of classification which ranges from mild, moderate and severe.

Within Study 1 were two different groups of participants. The first group of participants were experts in the field of eating and weight disorders. The second group of participants were females with diagnosed eating disorders. The investigators initially developed a survey of 56 items covering 13 facets of loss of control eating. Investigators developed the initial items and facets by reviewing qualitative literature, and the test that were currently being used to measure binge eating and bulimia. The investigators sent the survey through email to 60 experts in the field of eating disorders and 34 experts responded. The experts were asked to examine the 56 items on relevance and clarity and to suggest additional items and ideas reflecting LOC-eating. The experts were asked for feedback on the working definition of the construct of LOC-eating. Expert feedback resulted in 18 items being added, 10 items being deleted, and 12 facets being retained within the LOCES questionnaire. Based on the feedback from the experts the following working definition for the study was

Throughout the semester I have really enjoyed this class and I have learned a lot. The Ted talk that we watched that was all about the female superheroes is something that I thought was very interesting and at the same time very disturbing. I think that female superheroes should be sold along with male superheroes. I think that it's an outrageous thing and something that I did not know until watching this Ted Talk. I think that both men and women superheros should be sold together. Why hasn't this issue been brought up before? Little girls or boys going to pick out their favorite female superhero just like they are able to pick out their male favorite male superhero. I think it's something that is a bigger problem that people are not paying