Eating Disorders

Eating disorders are characterized by irregular, abnormal, or disturbed eating habits, often accompanied by an obsessive concern with body weight and shape and a preoccupation with food. The four most common eating disorders are anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and other specified feeding and eating disorder (OSFED). Each is briefly described here; complete clinical definitions for these disorders are provided in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.

AN is characterized by a severe restriction of food, intense fear of being fat, and a distorted perception of one’s own weight. BN is characterized by eating large amounts of food in relatively short amounts of time (bingeing), followed by the use of purging behaviors such as ...