[Eating disorders]

Abstract

Eating disorders, such as anorexia, bulimia and binge eating disorder, are a common mental health problem, but are even so easily missed in the medical field. Patients experience a lot of shame to come up with their eating problem. Doctors tend to forget asking for eating pattern and purging when a patient has a normal weight or is obese. A third of the obese population experience binges. A relatively new diagnose is ARFID (avoidant restrictive food intake disorder). Patients are not scared to gain weight, but have nutritional deficits because of not being able to eat, forgetting to eat or eating only a couple of products. Motivating patients to seek treatment is challenging. Understanding their struggles, knowing the complications and what to examine is important. The article gives an overview how to diagnose and examine eating disorders and when and where to refer to.