Anorexia Prevention

The Predictors, Prevention and Intervention of Anorexia Anorexia is an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to lose weight by refusing to eat. It is also characterized as a medical condition where a person experiences a loss or lack of appetite. This can result in irreversible health complications, including death. Anorexia is extremely physiological. Psychological factors that can contribute to eating disorders include low self-esteem, feelings of not being enough or lack of control, anxiety, or loneliness. In a collection of forty two studies with 3,006 individuals diagnosed with anorexia, 178 deaths were accounted for. In a collection of thirty eight studies where cause of death was included complications of an eating …show more content…
A study was done to develop a rating scale to evaluate a broad range of target behaviors and attitudes of women with anorexia. Two independent groups were used in this study, female patients meeting the criteria for anorexia nervosa (AN), and female normal control (NC) subjects. The women in the NC group were college students who had no signs of illness and came from the same socioeconomic status as the women in the AN group. Each group was given a set of thirty five items and asked to rate their feelings on a Likest-Scale. The results were considered meaningful if the AN group scored significantly higher than the NC group (Garner and Garfinkel, 1979). Once administered, the data showed that the AN group scored significantly higher than the NC group. After validating the theory, men as well as obese subjects and clinically recovered AN patients were given the test and AN patients still scored significantly higher than any other groups. This became known as the Eating Altitude Test (EAT). The need for this scale was extremely high because there is a crossover between normal feelings any given women has about body image compared to women with anorexia. With this scale came the differentiation between the two and a more accurate way of diagnosing …show more content…
Nutritional rehabilitation and weight restoration, often involving a period of inpatient or day hospital treatment, usually constitute the first step in the recovery process in severe cases (Carter, 2012) A study was conducted on a group of people ages 16-45 that fit the criteria for an eating disorder. Seventeen individuals were examined and then nine of those patients received a manualized intervention. This intervention consisted of twelve, ninety minute sessions occurring three times a week for four weeks. As soon as patients reached a normal weight they began the