Eating Disorders

Abstract

Eating disorders affect an estimated 5 million Americans every year. These illnesses — anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and their variants — are characterized by a serious disturbance in eating, such as restriction of intake or bingeing, as well as distress or excessive concern about body shape or body weight. In addition to their effects on psychological well-being, they have a potentially devastating effect on health through the physiologic sequelae of altered nutritional status or purging. The mortality rate associated with anorexia nervosa alone, at 0.56 percent per year, is more than 12 times as high as the mortality . . .