Eating disorders are psychological disorders that include abnormal eating or weight control behaviors. Disturbed attitudes towards weight, body shape, and eating play a key role in their origin and maintenance. The form of these concerns varies by gender; in men for example, body image conserns might focus on muscularity, whereas in women, these concerns might focus more on weight loss (Treasure, Claudino, A & Zucker, 2010).
Categories of Eating Disorders
Eating disorders consist of three main category. These categories are anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. A fourth category is eating disorders not specified, in which individuals have eating related problems but do not meet the diagnostic criteria for anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating (Locke & Arnocky, 2020).
Treatment Techniques for Eating Disorders
There are varios treatment techniques for eating disorders. The first one is medications. According to some research medications are not so effective in treatment of eating disorders and drop out rates are high and relapse is common. The second one is psychological treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy, family therapy and EMDR techniques are useful for eating disorders treatment. No treatment has yet been shown to produce long term maintenance of weight gain but family based treatments show the most promise for anorexia.
References
Treasure, J., Claudino, A. M., & Zucker, N. (2010). Eating disorders. Lancet (London, England), 375(9714), 583–593.
Locke, A. & Arnocky, S. (2020). Eating Disorders.