eating disorders

Eating disorders are characterised by an abnormal attitude towards food that causes someone to change their eating habits and behaviour. A person with an eating disorder may focus excessively on their weight and shape, leading them to make unhealthy choices about food with damaging results to their health. Eating disorders include anorexia nervosa, bulimia and binge eating.

Our eating disorders Blogs

We all know that the Internet can be a dangerous place for people with eating disorders, but can it also help them get better?

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Chances are you’ve heard of the internet. Unless you’re reading this after it’s been transcribed onto some parchment and brought to you by a psychologically-interested crow in which case you’ve got some further research to do. In terms of eating disorders, most people may associate the internet with those ghastly pro-anorexia sites which for reasons [read the full story…]

Weak evidence from recent review suggests there is no harm when using exercise to treat anorexia nervosa

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Maxine Howard
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Exercise is usually promoted as a healthy behaviour, with government guidelines on how much we should all do per week. At the right levels many people find exercise an enjoyable way to improve their health, but is this always the case? For a particular group of people who have problems with eating and weight, this [read the full story…]

The overall incidence of eating disorders increased between 2000 and 2009, says new register-based UK study

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Rupert Thurston
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Eating disorders are chronic conditions associated with high mortality and morbidity as highlighted by a previous Mental Elf blog in 2011. Eating disorders are categorised into three main groups: i. Anorexia Nervosa (AN), ii. Bulimia Nervosa (BN) and iii. Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS). Using ICD 10 criteria, EDNOS includes atypical AN and atypical BN as well [read the full story…]

Cost effectiveness analysis finds stepped care to be cheaper and more effective than CBT for bulimia nervosa

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Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder; the diagnosis of which requires: persistent preoccupation with eating and an irresistible craving for food, episodes of overeating in which large amounts of food are consumed over a short period of time and potentially attempts to counteract the “fattening” effects of food by self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. [read the full story…]

Reading well books on prescription: public mental health in action

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Steve Appleton
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Public mental health and wellbeing has gathered greater currency following the publication of No Health without Mental Health in 2011.  Public health is about improving the health of the population through preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health. Local Authorities are now the public sector organisation with lead responsibility for public health and public mental health. [read the full story…]

Yoga for psychiatric disorders: systematic review shows some benefit but more research needed

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Caroline Tomes
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Here at Mental Elf HQ, several new pieces of research relating to yoga have come our way.  This blog is the first in a series examining the mental health effects of engaging in yoga. Yoga is a form of exercise (largely comprising physical postures and breathing) which originated in India over 5,000 years ago.  Many [read the full story…]

Antipsychotics don’t help increase weight or reduce symptoms for women with anorexia nervosa

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Evidence-based treatments for mental health conditions have come on in leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. I remember as a young elf, skipping around the country and running workshops on evidence-based mental health; training psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and others. There wasn’t much gold standard evidence to choose from back then and there was [read the full story…]

Adolescent girls are less satisfied with their bodies compared to boys, according to Finnish cohort study

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It’s hardly surprising that teenage girls and boys express dissatisfaction with their bodies. The vast majority of TV, magazine, billboard and Internet images of the human body present a wholly unrealistic and unattainable version of the male and female physique. Young people cannot help but compare themselves to these standards and feel that they come [read the full story…]

Over 40% of US teenagers experience a mental health disorder in any 12 month period

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This new cross sectional study from researchers at Harvard Medical School looks at the prevalence of DSM-IV disorders in over 10,000 teenagers living in the community. The study looked at a representative sample of young people. Homeless adolescents, school drop-outs and non-English speakers were excluded from the research, even though those who speak a different [read the full story…]

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Might as well face it you’re addicted to tobacco, alcohol, drugs, eating, gambling, Internet, love, sex, exercise, work and shopping

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Browsing PubMed for systematic reviews on love addiction this morning (as you do) I came across this study by researchers in California. It suggests that half of the US population suffer from some kind of addiction during any given 12 month period and that addictions are often due to lifestyle factors. Readers concerned about the [read the full story…]

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