Author: Andrea

We’re In This Together: Collaborative Care for Eating Disorders

Andrea 2 Comments

This week I had the pleasure of attending a workshop with Janet Treasure on collaborative care in eating disorders. Treasure focused her workshop on supporting caregivers of people with eating disorders, offering practical skills for carers and clinicians alike to improve interactions with those with eating disorders. Though I am neither a carer nor a clinicians, I got a lot out of the workshop, and it reminded me of a few of Treasure’s articles I’ve read over the years, and how much I appreciate her strong focus on working collaboratively with patients and families to facilitate recovery.

I especially appreciated how she aims to integrate those with lived experience (of either having an eating disorder or caring for someone with an eating disorder) in research and treatment design. Some of her journal articles, including this article on the potential for harm in existing treatment models, even include former patients as … Continue reading →

Not Horsing Around: Using Equine Therapy For Eating Disorders

Andrea 5 Comments

It’s possible that some of you are already rolling your eyes: I know my audience. In the calls for evidence-based treatment, alternative therapies are often sidelined, deemed less important or less effective. While I certainly see that side of the argument, and would advocate for a continued search for treatment efficacy, I’m not ready to abandon the search for alternative approaches. Especially when used in concert with other treatments, I find alternative therapies very intriguing, partially for what they tell us about the complexity of treating eating disorders.

In a recent study, Lac, Marble & Boie (2013) explored the use of equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP) for eating disorders. Keep in mind that as is the case with many alternative therapies, the article is based on a case study, rather than a large-scale clinical trial. To me, the point of these types of articles is to get us thinking differently … Continue reading →

Reflections on the Weight Stigma Conference 2015

Andrea 6 Comments

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the third annual Weight Stigma Conference (WSC) in Reykjavik, Iceland. I lived Tweeted throughout, as did some others, so if you’re interested in seeing the social media from the conference I recommend checking out the #StigmaConf2015 hashtag on Twitter. A few people asked if I would blog about the conference, and I’m more than happy to do so! If you’re not a fan of conference recap blogs, stay tuned for our regular Science of EDs programming soon.

Overall, I thought this conference was fantastic. Though it was not a conference strictly geared toward eating disorders, weight stigma is not helpful for anyone in any kind of body and engaging in any kind of behaviours around food and exercise. It oversimplifies complex issues, makes body management a personal issue with strong political stakes, and reduces eating disorders and obesity to a binary … Continue reading →

Sensing the Body: Bodily Experience in Anorexia Nervosa

Andrea 1 Comment

I’ve been reading a lot of literature on bodies and eating disorders lately as I gear up to write the theoretical paper that becomes the basis of my PhD qualifying exam. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I’ve become a little preoccupied with teasing out my understanding of the relationship between body image and eating disorders in an era in which even saying those words in the same sentence sparks visceral reactions among listeners.

This post is not about whether body image causes eating disorders or not (sorry to disappoint). It is, however, about one of the best articles I’ve stumbled across thus far that seeks to shed some light on the ways in which those with eating disorders (specifically anorexia nervosa, in this case) might experience bodily sensations, which in my view is much more interesting than quibbling about whether body image is the primary causal factor for eating disorders.

In the article, … Continue reading →

Eating Disorders are a Political Issue: Bulimia Nervosa and Advanced Capitalism

Andrea 6 Comments

If you know me even a little bit, you can imagine my glee at coming across a paper entitled “The Political Economy of Bulimia Nervosa.” YES! I exclaimed. Let’s explore the ways in which our systems of food production are linked to eating disorders. Let’s complicate the idea of “the social” as it relates to eating disorders and do an analysis of the complex socio-political and economic forces that govern our world.

So, let’s get right into it, shall we?

The Article

Pirie (2011) argues that it is important to understand eating disorders from a political economic perspective so that we can look beyond an equation of the “cultural” and media representations of femininity. The way in, he suggests, is through a look at how food systems have shifted since the time at which bulimia nervosa was introduced as a psychiatric diagnosis, around 1970.

The article is not … Continue reading →

Is The Doctor In? Eating Disorders Training Amongst Medical Professionals — Part 3

Andrea

The thing about critiquing systemic issues like lacking training environments for medical professionals (and others) is that we have to be cautious to not place undue blame on those who are stuck immobilized between the desire to a) train or b) get training in eating disorders. If the solution to the egregious lack of training was simple, I feel sure that someone would have done it already! What I am gesturing at, here, is that the reasons behind lacking training opportunities are deeply rooted in socio-political, historical, and economic trends and policies. Those providing training and those seeking training do not exist in some glorious black hole devoid of austerity (frugalness, restrainedness) and neoliberalism.

In this post I’ll focus on a few studies that help to illuminate why these gaps in training might exist, including dominant sentiments (in the general public, in government, in training environments themselves) toward eating disorders. … Continue reading →

Is the Doctor In? Eating Disorders Training Amongst Medical Professionals — Part 2

Andrea

It is challenging for me to rein myself in when I start ranting about the poor state of affairs of eating disorder training for medical professionals. However, I reconcile my critical ranting with a paradoxical penchant for optimism. I figured, in my searching, that there must be something out there that gives us more to work with. Is there a functional model of providing training for medical professionals? At the very least, are the opportunities that do exist doing a good job at equipping healthcare providers with the skills they need to begin to navigate the complexity of eating disorders?

Building on part one, in which I highlighted 2 studies offering some challenging knowledge around how little is on offer within medical training environments, I will focus here on 2 studies about the outcomes of training. The first, a UK study, explores whether medical professionals are trained in eating … Continue reading →

Is the Doctor in? Eating Disorders Training Amongst Medical Professionals — Part 1

Andrea 9 Comments

Something that has often shocked and, frankly, appalled, me is how little training exists for those at the front line of eating disorder service delivery. I’m talking about people like family doctors, teachers, coaches, and others who might act as key gatekeepers for eating disorder services; those who don’t make eating disorders the focus of their practice but who likely encounter people with eating disorders as a part of their work life.

When I hear horrible stories about doctors shrugging off symptoms of eating disorders because the person presenting to the office does not “look like they have an eating disorder,” I want to cry. When I talk to teacher friends about the lack of built-in training around eating disorders (sometimes they have sought out opportunities to enhance their mental health awareness, but these don’t tend to be built in), I wish I had more to offer them. When I … Continue reading →

Disclosure and Pathways to Treatment in Eating Disorders

Andrea 7 Comments

We hear a fair bit about the length of time it can take to access eating disorder treatment. Delays are particularly distressing as the evidence points to better outcomes for those who receive timely care for their eating disorders (e.g. Treasure & Russell, 2011). We know about some of the potential barriers to care for eating disorders, including the lack of specialized services, the stereotypes and stigma that can impede formal and informal help-seeking, and the financial costs of seeking care not always covered by insurance. However, we know less about when people with eating disorders disclose their struggles, who they disclose to, and how this impacts their path to care.

When I was searching for articles related to treatment access for eating disorders, I came across a preliminary study published in 2012 by Gilbert and colleagues investigating disclosure of eating disorders and subsequent pathways to care. Because … Continue reading →

Reflecting on the 2015 International Conference on Eating Disorders

Andrea 14 Comments

When I get back from conferences I always have this odd mix of elation and overwhelmedness. This is never more acute than when I return home from an eating disorder conference. I get back to my apartment, flop down on my couch, and revel in the silence- while stewing in my mind about everything that happened, how to make sense of it, and where to go from here.

Sometimes it takes a bit of time to really digest (apparently I can’t write about eating disorders without inadvertently using food or bodily metaphors!) all that went on. So, I appreciate your patience in waiting for this post. In case you don’t follow my incessant Tweeting, last week I was at the International Conference on Eating Disorders (ICED). Last year, I had my Science of Eds partner in crime with me, and the year before that she went solo (recaps here and … Continue reading →