retrospective study

EDs Don’t Discriminate: Psychiatric Comorbidity in Men with Eating Disorders

By Tetyana ⋅ April 28, 2012 ⋅ One comment

Eating disorders don’t discriminate, they just have a bias (more on this in the future). While the majority of eating disorder patients are females, males suffer from eating disorders as well. In fact, it is about, roughly, a 10:1 ratio.

Men tend to just keep quiet about it (and who can blame them, given the stigma women face, it only gets worse for the men.) But, on the inside, their experiences, thoughts, behaviours and recovery span the same spectrum. This is evident from an NYTimes feature (10 min video) called “Patient Voices“, where 2 brave men and several women share their stories of “what it is like to have an eating disorder”.

There’s relatively little research out there on men with eating disorders, in large part due to the low prevalence rates which makes it harder to get a large enough sample size. So, you have to get creative, as the authors of this study did: they reviewed the prevalence of eating disorders and comorbid psychiatric disorders using data from the Veterans Affairs medical centers of male patients in the fiscal …

Eating Disorders and Psychiatric Comorbidities in Female Inpatients

By Tetyana ⋅ April 24, 2012 ⋅ 5 comments

Patients with eating disorders commonly exhibit comorbid psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression and OCD. The presence of comorbid disorders has been shown to exacerbate the severity and chronicity of the disorder, and unfavourably affect treatment outcome. Moreover, comorbid disorders may necessitate specialized treatment plans that take into account all the co-occuring disorders. Recovery from an eating disorder is hard enough, but when it is complicated by depression and severe anxiety, it can be a lot harder.

Nonetheless, commonly co-occuring psychiatric disorders may also provide researchers and clinicians clues about the etiology of eating disorders, the underlying neuronal processes as well as possible pharmacological interventions.

Researchers have been identifying disorders that commonly co-occur with eating disorders and studying the differences in co-morbidity between disorders. I picked one to write about today, it is a study by Blinder and colleagues that came out in 2007. It is by no means the best, but also not the worst, and of course it has several limitations, which I will mention. But it is a place to start.

This is a retrospective study, meaning that the authors went back through …

Cathy (UK) I haven't read the original paper, but what I
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Liz Agreed! It sounds like they are missing out on a L
Andrea Hi Liz, Sorry if I was unclear in the post; in th
Liz In this focus group, did the patients themselves a
Charlotte I can't articulate how much I can relate to e
peridot This article really resonates with me because I ha
Pre-morbid BMI, weight restoration, and amenorrhoe
ko I read your comment and can relate to everything y
Liz "Could it not be a more parsimonious explanat

Science of Eating Disorders