Eating disorders of humans

1. Eating Disorders

2. What is an Eating Disorder?
• Eating Disorders are neurobiological disorders rooted in the brain
causing medical and psychological issues
• They are NOT a choice and not simply about control or weight
management
• Genetics, Environment, Temperament all play a role
• Experienced by all genders, body sizes, SES

3. Types of Eating Disorders
• Pica
Persistent eating of non nutritive and non food substances
• Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID)
• Limitations on the amount or types of food intake; without distress about body
shape or size or fears of fatness
• Anorexia Nervosa (AN)
• Restriction of energy intake; Body image disturbance
• Bulimia Nervosa (BN)
• Recurrent binge eating episodes and compensatory behaviors that are meant to
prevent weight gain
• Binge Eating Disorder (BED)
• Recurring and persistent episodes of binge eating with the absence of regular
compensatory behaviors

4. Pica
A. Persistent eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances over a period
of at least 1 month.
B. The eating of nonnutritive, nonfood substances is inappropriate to
the developmental level of the individual.
C. The eating behavior is not part of a culturally supported or socially
normative practice.
D. If the eating behavior occurs in the context of another mental
disorder (e.g., intellectual disability [intellectual developmental
disorder], autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia) or medical
condition (including pregnancy), it is sufficiently severe to warrant
additional clinical attention.

5. Typical substances ingested tend to vary with age and
availability and might include
Paper Soap Cloth Hair
Talcum
powder
Coal /
clay
Paint Pebbles

6. Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder
• An eating or feeding disturbance (e.g., apparent lack of interest in
eating or food; avoidance based on the sensory characteristics of food)
as manifested by persistent failure to meet appropriate nutritional
and/or energy needs associated with one (or more) of the following:
1. Significant weight loss.
2. Significant nutritional deficiency.
3. Dependence on enteral feeding or oral nutritional supplements.
4. Marked interference with psychosocial functioning.

7. • The disturbance is not better explained by lack of available food or by
an associated culturally sanctioned practice.
• The eating disturbance does not occur exclusively during the course of
anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa.
• The eating disturbance is not attributable to a concurrent medical
condition or not better explained by another mental disorder.

8. Anorexia Nervosa
• Restriction of energy intake
• Significantly low weight
• Intense fear of gaining weight or of becoming fat, or persistent
behavior that interferes the weight gain, even though at a significantly
low weight.
• Compensatory behavior.

9. Compensatory behaviors
• Vomiting is the most common inappropriate compensatory
behavior. The immediate effects of vomiting include relief from
physical discomfort and reduction of fear of gaining weight.
• The patient will vomit after eating a small amount of food.
• They use a variety of methods to induce vomiting, including the
use of fingers or consume syrup of ipecac to induce vomiting.
Other purging behaviors include the misuse of laxatives.
• They may fast for a day or more or exercise excessively in an
attempt to prevent weight gain.

10. Bulimia Nervosa
• Recurrent episodes of binge eating.
• An episode of binge eating is characterized by both of the following:
1. Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an
amount of food that is definitely larger than what most individuals would eat
in a similar period of time under similar circumstances.
2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that
one cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
• Recurrent inappropriate compensatory behaviors in order to prevent weight
gain, such as self-induced vomiting; misuse of laxatives or other medications;
fasting; or excessive exercise.
• The binge eating and inappropriate compensatory behaviors both occur, on
average, at least once a week for 3 months.

11. Binge-Eating Disorder
• Recurrent episodes of binge eating. An episode of binge eating is characterized
by both of the following:
1. Eating, in a discrete period of time (e.g., within any 2-hour period), an amount
of food that is definitely larger than what most people would eat in a similar
period of time under similar circumstances.
2. A sense of lack of control over eating during the episode (e.g., a feeling that one
cannot stop eating or control what or how much one is eating).
• The binge-eating episodes are associated with three (or more) of the following:
1. Eating much more rapidly than normal.
2. Eating until feeling uncomfortably full.
3. Eating large amounts of food when not feeling physically hungry.
4. Eating alone because of feeling embarrassed by how much one is eating.
5. Feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterward.

12. • Marked distress regarding binge eating is present.
• The binge eating occurs, on average, at least once a week for 3
months.
• The binge eating is not associated with the recurrent use of
inappropriate compensatory behavior as in bulimia nervosa and does
not occur exclusively during the course of bulimia nervosa or anorexia
nervosa.

14. Psychological Factors that Can Contribute to Eating
Disorders:
• Low self-esteem
• Feelings of inadequacy or lack of control in life
• Depression, anxiety, anger, stress or loneliness

15. Interpersonal Factors that Can Contribute to Eating
Disorders:
• Troubled personal relationships
• Difficulty expressing emotions and feelings
• History of being teased or ridiculed based on size or weight
• History of physical or sexual abuse

16. Social Factors that Can Contribute to Eating
Disorders:
• Cultural pressures that glorify “thinness” or muscularity and place
value on obtaining the “perfect body”
• Narrow definitions of beauty that include only women and men of
specific body weights and shapes are beautiful.
• Cultural norms that value people on the basis of physical appearance
and not inner qualities and strengths.
• Stress related to racial, ethnic, size/weight-related or other forms of
discrimination or prejudice.

17. Biological Factors that Can Contribute to Eating
Disorders:
• Scientists are still researching possible biochemical or biological
causes of eating disorders. In some individuals with eating disorders,
certain chemicals in the brain that control hunger, appetite, and
digestion have been found to be unbalanced. The exact meaning and
implications of these imbalances remain under investigation.
• Eating disorders often run in families.

18. Thank you